


if death awaits

by aizensosuke



Series: the dreamers and the lovers [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood and Violence, Developing Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 00:58:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16882611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aizensosuke/pseuds/aizensosuke
Summary: winter brings change to the pack. winter brings tesla.





	1. Chapter 1

When Nnoitra Gilga lifts his head from the carcass steadily staining the snow red, the end of a rifle is perhaps five meters before him and aimed straight between his eyes.

The irony is not lost on him. After going out of his way to escape his pack territory to hunt on his own, a rare luxury that he all but bends over backwards in order to have the privilege of doing, the lack of his pack will probably end in his severe injury. Not death. Not at the hands of a werewolf hunter and certainly not because he remains stubborn enough to insist on having personal freedom away from the ragtag group of people Aizen Sosuke calls a pack. If Nnoitra is going to die, he is going to die on his own terms. No one else’s.

And not to something as undignified as a gunshot, either.

His lips curl back, revealing his blood-stained jaws as he straightens up, every muscle in his lean body coiling to spring. His ears pin back to the top of his head; he knows how unimpressive most hunters find him even drawn up to his full size. With a lean and lanky body, long legs and longer fur than any other wolf he has ever met, Nnoitra looks harmless to most. Even with his teeth bared like this, most hunters underestimate him. He lost an eye because of it, but he made sure the hunter suffered in turn and took great care in ripping his intestines out.

When he inhales, the scent of silver burns in his nasal cavity and he resists the urge to drag his nose through the snow to dampen the scent. He keeps his good eye fixed on the hunter, trying to scent the air; he can taste acrid fear on the tip of his tongue and is surprised someone so afraid can hold such a dangerous weapon so steadily.

Even beings as archaic as werewolf hunters can apparently pick up new tricks.

The shot is unavoidable; Nnoitra is going to take damage the burn of the silver poison in his veins will slow him down, but he can avoid the shot being fatal. Too bad the hunter is not skilled enough to pick him out as an omega, because hunters always aim for wombs first with the logic that taking the ability to breed is just as good as death in the end. Nnoitra was never very attached to his uterus to begin with and would have let it go to save himself the trouble.

Through the hunter’s winter coat, Nnoitra can see the muscles in his arms flex and prepares himself to dodge. He can take the bullet in the shoulder, take the hunter out, and go home to let Szayel fuss over him and take care of his injuries. Aizen won’t chastise him for an injury if he makes sure to repay the hunter in kind, and then some. And there is nothing Nnoitra enjoys as much as he does sinking his teeth into one of these stupid humans.

As it turns out, the alpha wolf is downwind. Nnoitra would never have smelled him coming.

A golden projectile shoots through the trees, a cunning combination of grace and fury. The growl that rips from the alpha’s throat makes Nnoitra’s knees tremble just a touch but he barrels out of the way, the hunter squeezing the trigger out of fear and reflex with no real intent to hit anymore. The bullet whizzes over his shoulder and buries itself in the snow, a relief. Nnoitra has been shot more times than he can count and has plenty of scars to show for it, but he finds himself less than excited to add to the collection when it burns so much.

When the alpha bites down on the hunter’s head, the crunch echoes in the still air.

Nnoitra is still as he watches. The momentum the alpha has sends him in a high arc over the hunter, and he has to turn with it so his teeth can find purchase. His teeth gleam white in the air before they puncture flesh and bone and grey matter, the wet tearing sound as he comes back to the earth sending a shiver of pleasure down Nnoitra’s spine. As he watches, the alpha gives his entire body a rough shake, dislodging the top of the hunter’s head from the rest of his body.

He spits the pieces out into the snow and drags his muzzle through it, no doubt trying to wash the taste out of his mouth. Humans never taste much like food.

Silent, Nnoitra watches him. Alphas have come to his “rescue” before in an attempt to have him owe them, assuming they can take their repayment in the form of his naked body. It makes him wary of them; it makes him wary of every alpha in Aizen’s pack to the point where most of them go out of their way to avoid him just because he has never been afraid to bite and claw his way out of any and all altercations. Only Nelliel is stupid enough to come too close to him; the two of them have fought more times than Nnoitra can be bothered to count.

Alphas cannot be trusted. He learned that at a young age. So he keeps his guard up and watches this alpha carefully, trying to discern what he thinks he might do next.

Visually, the alpha is beautiful. Rich golden fur, tawny in its darkest places, gleaming under the sunlight; a sign of good health and care. When he swivels his head half in Nnoitra’s direction, his eye is bright and golden, clear all the way through. Of course, he doesn’t have Nnoitra’s height or impressively long legs but he makes up for it in muscle packed onto his frame, making him look bulky under all that fur, well-fed and strong.

When he turns his head the rest of the way around, Nnoitra pauses. Scar tissue mars the right side of his face, a mirror of Nnoitra’s own ruined left side.

Tense all through the core of his body, Nnoitra waits. He watches the alpha cock his head, one ear perking up slightly as he no doubt tries to decide what to make out of Nnoitra after all. He probably smelled him on the wind, and the silver, and took it as a sign of danger so he could rush in and assist. Probably expected a cute little omega, not something as dangerous and rangy and scarred as Nnoitra. No one ever really  _ expects _ someone like him.

He waits, lips poised to curl back, ears twitching back toward his skull once more.

The alpha half-flops into the snow, panting, tail wagging madly behind him, and barks at Nnoitra.

_ Oh. _ Nnoitra blinks down at him, his body language easing as he realizes this alpha has no intention of attempting to attack him. Instead, the buffoon stretches his forelegs out in front of him and barks again, a playful and friendly greeting instead of anything even slightly tense or worrisome. Like he thinks of Nnoitra as less than a threat, which is an  _ insult. _ Or maybe it would be one if he just hadn’t gone out of his way to protect Nnoitra's life.

_ Tch. _ Alphas are all the same in their own special way.

Nnoitra is maybe in a fairer mood than he’s been in quite some time— the alpha is  _ pretty _ and much better-looking than all of the alphas in Aizen’s pack— so he takes a few cautious steps in the alpha’s direction, sniffing him curiously the closer he grows to him. His scent is rich and green and slightly wet but alive and thick just the same. Dizzying in how attractive a scent it is, and the way the alpha wags his tail the moment he realizes Nnoitra is scenting him is ridiculous.

It makes Nnoitra tense just a little when the alpha slinks forward on his belly to scent him back.

He knows what he smells like; enough alphas have described it to him while they were trying to woo him that he has it memorized even though his own scent hardly registers to him. Honeysuckle and wild flowers, something too soft and sweet for an omega like him, something that never fails to surprise others when they see the source of his scent. Even growing up, Nnoitra never fit his particular scent. He knows how disarming it can be.

This alpha makes a noise of approval in the back of his throat and Nnoitra huffs at him. Then he pointedly turns his back on him and returns to his hard-won meal, nosing back into the split-open gut of the buck he took down just before the hunter interrupted him.

If the alpha tried to weasel his way into the meal, Nnoitra would be less than surprised. They do that, more often than he likes to think about; this alpha only sits quietly in the snow, head on his paws, watching Nnoitra with his one eye, nose working in the air every so often. Not watching him eat but watching  _ over _ him and the thought is distasteful enough that Nnoitra  _ accidentally _ flips snow onto his head with the twitch of his tail. Surprised when the alpha only gives his head a small shake but doesn’t even make a noise of dissent.

This encounter might be one for the record books.

_ Only _ because the alpha protected him does Nnoitra eventually dig out one fat kidney, picking it up carefully between his teeth to carry it over to his would-be guardian. He rolls his eye when the alpha’s tail thumps against the ground, sending up a little flurry of snow. As soon as he sets the kidney down in front of him, though, the alpha leans forward and noses against Nnoitra’s nuzzle, too affectionate a touch for someone like him. He growls, and the alpha backs off.

_ Definitely _ something to remember; Nnoitra never forgets anything important.

The alpha tears into his gifted meal happily enough and Nnoitra is satisfied he’s done enough to repay him, so he returns to his meal and gluts himself on his kill while the sky above them deepens from pale grey to darker grey, a sign of the incoming evening. Nnoitra likes winter; he likes the chill in the air, the snow, the bareness of the trees. His coat is long and heavy enough to make the cold something he can navigate better than most, too.

When he finishes with his meal and is satisfied, he looks toward the alpha once more. Who lifts his head off of his paws and looks right back, not moving to stand.

Nnoitra’s growl must have been taken more seriously than he thought it was.

Taking a human shape this far away from his pack territory is suicidal, and he knows that, but Nnoitra has never been particularly careful when it counts and he dressed warm before he left the den just in case of an emergency. His change from wolf to human is more fluid than most; it’s been implied more than once that he’s never been the least bit human, that his wolf skin fits his body better just because it serves as a more suitable casing for such a violent animal.

Nnoitra takes that as a compliment no matter how it’s intended to come across.

The alpha follows suit and Nnoitra cackles when he discovers just how much taller he is than the alpha; he has at least a foot of height on him. And God, most alphas  _ hate _ that he’s just over seven feet tall, that he makes most of them look  _ petite _ in comparison to his height.

“So you’re my prince charming,” he says dryly, his voice a little hoarse from how long he’s been out in the cold. Hours, now, without making so much as a single sound.

“You’re tall.” The alpha blinks, tilting his head back as he looks up at him and Nnoitra smiles thinly, waiting to see what his reaction to this information will be. “I’m surprised, though I knew you must be. Only tall humans can make such large wolves.”

With a soft hum, Nnoitra takes a step closer to him, stretching out a hand to touch the ruffled mess of his tawny hair. “That would be truth. I’m seven foot two inches tall.”

“That’s incredible.” The alpha exhales the words more than  _ speaks _ them and Nnoitra frowns.

“Where did you come from?” Nnoitra’s eyes scan the trees; he should have looked for more wolves the moment this one turned up just in case of emergency. There should be no more packs in the area; the Zaraki pack territory ends up north and the Kuchiki pack is further south. It’s just the three of them up here as far as he knows.

“I’m a nomad,” the alpha tells him, and he offers a hand. Big and rough-palmed, and Nnoitra can feel the heat emanating from his skin before he thinks about touching him. “Tesla Lindocruz. Most of my pack was picked off by hunters and the rest left the area to avoid them, so I’m none too friendly when it comes to them. I smelled that you were in danger.”

Nnoitra snorts and takes him roughly by the hand, and  _ oh, _ his skin is very warm. Callused just like Nnoitra could see, a common enough feature of their kind. “I could’ve handled it. Being a nomad around this area isn’t safe, you know. There are hunters and three packs.”

“I’ve heard interesting things about those hunters.” Tesla cocks his head and his fingers flex around Nnoitra’s hand. “That a pack picked off an entire clan of them to make a point.”

When Nnoitra smiles, he makes sure to show all of his teeth. “That would be me and mine.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Tesla half-smiles at him and Nnoitra can see blood on his teeth from where he shared his kill, and if Nelliel ever found out she would  _ never _ let him live it down. “Honored to make your acquaintance, then. And I apologize if my reaction seemed impromptu. It was instinct, and instinct alone. Not meant to be an insult.”

A polite, handsome alpha speaking to him in a respectful manner? Nnoitra is half-convinced he should drag this one home and mate him now while he has a chance, but he chastises himself for that. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the pack is cosying up with one another or if the cold winter nights seem painfully longer than they should be; Nnoitra  _ chose _ to be a loner and he knows just how quickly an alpha can turn around and prove to be an asshole.

Having a handsome face and a beautiful fucking smile doesn’t mean anything out here.

Nnoitra licks his teeth. He could leave Tesla out here in the cold without his name and go home, and if Aizen found out he left a loner who was willing to kill, he would be skinned alive for it. Or not, because Aizen is weird about omegas; he would be chastised, though, and Aizen has a way of talking down to him that makes him sound like a disappointed father, and it grates on every single nerve that Nnoitra has until he feels like a genuine fuck-up.

Aizen  _ wants _ them to bring strays home. Their entire pack is a mass of strays and loners, those who lost their packs or chose to enter exile. Nnoitra is the former; Aizen himself is the latter.

“Are you looking for a pack?” Asking at all feels strange, and Nnoitra hates it.

Tesla cocks his head, his one eye narrowing just slightly. “Does your pack accept strays?”

“That’s all we are.” When Tesla gives him a look, Nnoitra shrugs one shoulder helplessly. It isn’t a lie; he knows how fucked up their dynamic is, but the truth is the truth. “My alpha is always on the lookout for people willing to do what it takes when it comes to hunters.”

Understanding blooms in Tesla’s eyes. “And I killed one right in front of you.”

“So congratulations. You got a witness and everything.” Nnoitra claps him on the shoulder. And oh, okay, Tesla  _ does _ have some serious muscle going on under the heavy plaid shirt he has on. Not that many layers, but he doesn’t need them; Nnoitra can feel his body heat through the fabric and wonders dully what that would feel like in bed. “If you want a pack, that is.”

“Are there more omegas there like you?” Tesla asks. Which is, of course, what any alpha would ask after having to spend more than five minutes in Nnoitra’s company.

He tells himself quite seriously not to take that as an insult. “Sorry, Tesla. I’m unique.”

A flicker of something passes through Tesla’s eye faster than Nnoitra can track it and he can’t quite read what the twitch of Tesla’s mouth is supposed to mean. “Fair enough. I didn’t get your name. Do I need to kill another hunter to earn that honor?”

“Gave you food, didn’t I?” Nnoitra presses, and Tesla blinks at him. “It’s Nnoitra Gilga.”

“Nnoitra.” Tesla takes his time saying the same and Nnoitra raises an eyebrow at him, watching him taste the shape of it on his tongue before he gives a short nod. “Nnoitra is a very unusual name, but a suitable one. You said something about having a pack?”

Right. “It’s a bit of a walk in human form. You’re gonna want all four legs for this one.”

Nnoitra is fast on four legs because his legs are  _ long _ but Tesla keeps up with him, which is a pleasant surprise. And once they hit the territory, he can hear Aizen’s familiar vocalization, something between a croon and a howl and just for the pack. As much as Nnoitra is loathe to admit to it, he has grown to associate the sound with  _ home. _

He throws his head back and howls in return, a half-cackle of a sound, and thinks for half a second that Tesla might have been watching him.


	2. Chapter 2

Admittedly, Tesla is surprised to see the sheer size of the gathering awaiting them.

When Nnoitra told him he had a pack to go home to, Tesla tried to quash the shock he felt at the thought someone like Nnoitra could ever belong to a pack at large. Pack wolves are a dime a dozen; Tesla has met more than he could ever hope to count, and none of them would have dared to hunt outside of their pack territory. None of them would have dared to bring an interloper back to the heart of their territory and show their hand so clearly like this.

That being said, Tesla expected a ragtag dozen or so wolves to be awaiting them based on the fact this territory is simply not that large. Finding out it belongs to someone at all is a shock. The last time he dared to come this close to the space between the Zaraki and Kuchiki packs, it was a no man’s land. How long has it belonged to someone else? Where did this pack come from?

When Nnoitra reaches the edge of the clearing in the thick ring of trees, he shifts smoothly back into his human shape, one pale hand sweeping his hair back behind his face. “Oi, alpha!”

The pack disperses at the sound of his voice and Tesla tries to guess which of these wolves must be the pack alpha. He has his bet firmly placed on the hulking black shape at the edge of the pack, but a nondescript brown wolf steps forward instead, shifting to his human form so quickly and easily it seems like no more than an exhale of breath for him.

“Nnoitra.” The man who blinks placidly at the two of them is as nondescript as his wolf appearance would have suggested, a single strand of chestnut hair hanging against the side of his nose. “You’ve brought back an unfamiliar companion, I see.”

“You told us to bring back anyone we thought would be a good fit for the pack,” Nnoitra says before knocking Tesla on the top of the head with his fist. “Change, idiot.”

Leaving his wolf form behind means depriving himself of most of his self-defense, given he will no longer have his teeth and claws and he knows he cannot outmatch this pack alpha’s shape changing. But Nnoitra commanded so Tesla changes, his spine straightening as he comes to stand at Nnoitra’s side. The two of them must make an odd pair, but the entire pack seems to be odds and ends and the scents are conflicting enough that Tesla isn’t sure he could pick the alpha out from the omegas if he had to, much less the betas.

He bows his head in greeting, fixing his gaze on the snow at their feet. “Hello, alpha.”

“Aizen Sosuke. You’ve no need to be so formal before you’re mine.” The man— Aizen— walks up to them, his nose twitching as his eyes narrow. “Report, Nnoitra.”

The corner of Nnoitra’s mouth twitches faintly. “There was a hunter when I was eating. Tesla here took him down before I even had a chance to react. Since you specifically said you wanted wolves willing to take down hunters, I was nice enough to bring you one.”

Tesla raises his head just as Aizen takes a step forward, his soft brown eyes examining Tesla’s face carefully. “Is that right? Did you shield a member of my pack from danger?”

“It was instinct,” Tesla says smoothly, and Aizen smiles faintly. “I smelled a hunter, and I reacted properly in response. Nnoitra then offered to bring me back to meet you.”

Nnoitra splays his hands out. “Like I said, Aizen-sama. You wanted killers, well, you got one.”

“I see.” Aizen turns toward the rest of the pack. “Change so we can speak, now.”

Without a word, Tesla visually tracks how fast each wolf shifts back, how fluidly the transition is and how quickly they rise to their feet after. Two women are the fastest, and the hulking black wolf is not much slower than them despite his immense size which tells Tesla just how comfortable he is in his wolf skin. The much smaller black wolf next to him is a tad faster, and his eyes glow an almost inhuman green as he rises to his feet.

“Where is Grimmjow?” Aizen asks, turning his attention to the two woman. “Halibel?”

A brown-skinned woman with soft golden hair lifts her chin. “He’s back in his room. His heat is quickly approaching so he’s resting. Do you need me to go get him?”

“No, I’ll allow you and Nelliel to speak on his behalf as his alphas.” Aizen sighs softly, turning further. “Gin! I know you’re watching from the trees, but you need to be here.”

Soft footfalls catch Tesla’s eye and he holds his breath when a slender silver fox steps out of the trees, far too large to be any normal animal even before his eyes count the nine tails billowing behind it. Black-socked feet leave small footprints in their wake— And then the kitsune is a man, curling his long and slender arms around Aizen from behind, sharp chin coming to rest on Aizen’s shoulder like he belongs there. Tesla sees a flash of blue iris, but only a flash.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, darlin,” the man purrs. “You know how I feel about new people.”

Aizen stretches a hand back, curling it around the nape of Gin’s neck. “It’s fine. Young alpha, can I have your name and your purpose for coming to greet our pack?”

“Tesla Lindocruz.” Tesla eyes Nnoitra in his peripheral vision; should he be blunt? Probably not this early. “I haven’t had a pack since mine was killed by hunters, but if this is a pack dedicated to culling them, then I want to join and assist as much as I can.”

“Is that all?” Aizen cocks his head, expression thoughtful. “It’s certainly what I prefer in a new member, though I must confess I’m surprised it seems to be your area of focus.”

Tesla shrugs; he’s a simple man, all things considered. “I was a nomad before now. Having a pack isn’t something I truly need in life. If that is a problem, then I apologize.”

“I prefer your honesty.” Aizen looks to the rest of his pack. “Does anyone have any issues?”

The quiet of the pack is jarring, but if Aizen wants killers, maybe they care less about who enters their inner circle as long as he does his job and kills for them. It is an unusual way to build the pack for sure, but Tesla is not complaining. Being warm and fuzzy with a group of strangers only feels strange and incorrect; he followed Nnoitra this far  _ specifically _ because of Nnoitra, not because he has some misguided desire to try to build a semblance of a family once more.

It is easier to handle life when he has far less to lose.

“I thought not.” Aizen stretches out a hand and rests it on top of Tesla’s head, and the touch feels condescending. “We have a few stragglers at the edge of our territory who have not come home yet, but the majority rules here, and I rule the majority. So welcome, Tesla.”

Just once more, Tesla inclines his head. “Thank you, alpha.”

“See? Told you.” Nnoitra wraps a hand around the back of his neck, dragging him toward a heavy spray of brush. “This is the entrance to our home. You couldn’t get in without being pack. Gin’s hexed it or some such bullshit, I don’t pretend to get how his magic works.”

Gin huffs a sigh behind them and Tesla glances back at him, watches him nuzzle the side of Aizen’s neck affectionately. “It’s  _ protection, _ Nnoitra, not a hex. Anyone who is not pack could not enter. They will be lost in a labyrinth of empty chambers and eventually die within.”

“Protection,” Nnoitra parrots. “Right. Anyway, c’mon. I’ll show you around so you don’t get lost.”

The brush parts around their bodies and Tesla is surprised to find the mouth of a cave hidden behind it, much more surprised that the interior grows steadily warmer the further they venture inside. When he hears footsteps behind him, he glances over his shoulder, unsurprised to see the two women from outside considering one of them said their mate was nearing his heat cycle. This close, Tesla can smell  _ alpha _ all over both of them.

“You know how I feel about you at my back, Nelliel,” Nnoitra says without turning his head.

The second woman, one with a curious red birthmark across her nose and a heavy fall of turquoise hair that spills around her shoulders, merely cocks her head. “It’s not my fault you walked ahead of me, Nnoitra. I have to attend to Grimmjow. You know this.”

“He’s not gonna die without your knot.” Nnoitra snorts at the concept and turns to face her properly; his scent is sour around the edges now. “Give me some fucking space.”

Tesla can feel the air thicken between them and steps between them, daring to take Nnoitra by the slender length of his wrist. “Shall we go? You wanted to show me around.”

“I did.” Nnoitra sneers at Nelliel, who only regards him with solemn hazel eyes. “Let’s go.”

He shakes Tesla off in seconds but Tesla lets him, does not question the space he wants but is relaxed when the sweet notes of his scent return like a spring afternoon even in the warm darkness of the cave. There is no light until the precise moment when Tesla’s eyes would strain at the dark, and then there are lamps hung up on the walls, lighting the way dimly enough to be pleasant and to just make it easy to see. Nnoitra moves in this space with ease, long fluid movements and flashes of leg beneath him as he draws Tesla further into the cave.

“Gin is a kitsune,” Tesla finally says when the women seem far enough back not to eavesdrop.

Nnoitra’s lips twist into a frightening smile and he nods once, turning his one flashing violet eye on Tesla. “So you noticed, huh? Kinda hard not to when he wants you to see him.”

“Did he do all of this?” Tesla sweeps his arm forward, at the cave in general. “Or—”

“No.” Nnoitra cackles wildy and his hand returns to the back of Tesla’s neck, urging him forward just a little faster. “No, we dragged the old inhabitants out one by one and slaughtered them. Hunters. They set up camp here so they could hunt the nearby packs at their leisure.”

The thought makes something hot and angry churn in Tesla’s gut, but his face is blank and his voice polite. “Well, it’s good that you dealt with them before they could become a problem.”

“Of course.” Nnoitra fans a hand in front of his face and Tesla picks up on the notes of something wild and sweet and heavy in the air. “Grimmjow never fucking shuts the door when he’s alone in there. He’s not gonna die if no one shoves a knot in him. Dumbass cat.”

Tesla raises an eyebrow and does his best to ignore the heavy scent of heat and sex in the air as he follows Nnoitra. “Cat? You have another non-wolf in this pack?”

“We do,” Nnoitra says, skinny fingers flexing on Tesla’s neck before he shoves him into a large room with a massive fire burning in its center, curls of orange and yellow flickering before their eyes, and dully Tesla wonders how they can burn fires in this space with no ventilation. “Nice, isn’t it? Gin keeps it burning. He says it doesn’t take anything. And he vents the space, too.”

“Kitsune are magical creatures, but I suppose I never thought much about them having useful magic such as this,” Tesla admits. He wonders if the fire actually burns, of if it only looks like it.

Nnoitra snickers, squeezes the nape of his neck. “Gin’s wicked. Keep an eye out for him.”

“Of course.” Tesla is no fool, not when it comes to magical beings. Not when it comes to those with lengthy histories of being vicious creatures. “He looked cozy with your alpha.”

In answer, Nnoitra only shrugs. “Dunno much about that. When I met Aizen, Gin was already hanging off of him like a parasite. He was a member of the Kuchiki pack until he wasn’t anymore, and then he was our alpha. And now here we are, holed up in this cave together.”

The cave seems nothing at all like a hole, not to Tesla; the interior is warm and inviting and not dirty at all, a testament to how carefully the interior structure had been created and with what they had in mind. Wolves would not have worried about cushioning such a space in such a lavish way, but hunters have all of the same weaknesses as normal humans and would need the insulation to handle the rough mountain winters and the biting cold outside. Tesla wonders if they ever imagined having their home forcibly taken by the creatures they try to kill.

He hopes they’re rotting in hell right now as they watch Nnoitra show him around.

There are a handful of communal baths, split between the alphas, betas, and omegas for the purposes of privacy, a large kitchen space, a dining room that has been repurposed into a more recreational space. With enough rooms to house the pack and then some, especially when there are pack members already paired up, Tesla has his fair choice of rooms.

He chooses the one in the same corridor as Nnoitra’s room. “In case I need to ask you a question or forget where something is. I’d get lost looking for you.”

“Fair enough.” Nnoitra’s voice implies he thinks the absolute worst of Tesla, which is more than fair. “Yammy and Ulquiorra are in this hall, too, so don’t be surprised if you get woken up in the middle of the night. At least Szayel keeps to himself most of the time.”

Tesla tilts his head. “I recognize none of those names.”

“It’s gonna take you a while to be able to figure it out, huh?” Nnoitra sighs and rests his elbow on top of Tesla’s head, which is only slightly unpleasant. His arms are bony, but the meat of his arm is not so bad. “Yammy’s big, Ulquiorra’s small, Szayel has pink hair and glasses. Don’t agree to any of his experiments but don’t be a dick to him. He’s the  _ only _ sort of okay alpha.”

The dig does not go missed by Tesla, but he knows better than to start arguing with Nnoitra during his first hour in this pack. “Duly noted. I wouldn’t, Nnoitra.”

“Good.” Nnoitra shoves him past the entryway to the bedroom meant to be his own, and Tesla looks over the space with a critical eye. Clean, bed, some furniture. Nothing lavish, but everything is lavish when you spent the nights sleeping in snow. “This is your room, then. Keep it clean or whatever. Gin can scent block it for you when you go into rut.”

Tesla sits down on the futon in the corner, his feet planted on the floor. “I’ll keep that in mind. You know, the other packs must be grateful to all of you for taking up such a dangerous position and going through so much to ensure their safety like this.”

Nnoitra’s lips twitch. “They don’t know. Important that you keep it that way.”

“Excuse me?” Tesla blinks at him. “I’m not sure I understand. How can they just not know?”

This time, Nnoitra snorts and makes himself at home on the dresser across from the futon, folding his long legs up beneath him. “Alpha says not to tell, so we don’t tell. He’s in exile from the Kuchiki pack so as far as they’re concerned, he’s an enemy. I don’t know the finer details. Don’t really give a shit, to be honest. Just that alpha said to keep it a secret.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll be keeping my mouth shut.” Not that Tesla cares too much, all things being equal. If Aizen wants to keep secrets, then so be it. He might as well help out.

“Smart man. It’ll matter when it matters, not before and not after.” Nnoitra props his chin in the palm of his hand, his sharp features eerie in the darkness of the room. “You think you’re gonna like it here? It’s just a pack, but when hunters show up, we take ‘em down without hesitation.”

Tesla nods; that suits him just fine. “I will make sure to steer clear of your own kills.”

“You should. I can handle myself. You’ll get a chance to see, finally.” Nnoitra is quiet for a long moment and then he sighs, stretches his arms over his head and slides off of the dresser in a fluid motion that makes Tesla think more of a serpent than a wolf. “Well, I’m gonna go wash up and take a nap before tonight. Aizen-sama will want to run because you’re here, probably. Take a nap if you want one because we’ll be out all night.”

Nodding, Tesla falls back on his futon. “Sounds like an interesting plan to me.”

Nnoitra leaves the room and Tesla watches after him long after he has vanished from sight, debating the merits of chasing after him tonight in their wolf skin. Certainly, Nnoitra is nothing like the omegas Tesla has met in the past, sharper and harder than the sharpest and hardest he has had the pleasure of knowing. And yet, he had brought Tesla all the way here, introduced him to his pack, and effectively taken him in as a result.

Certainly, Nnoitra Gilga is an interesting man.

His scent, charmingly sweet and a complete lie, lingers in the room still even after his departure, a perfume that does nothing to belie his nature.

Tesla falls asleep with the sweetness resting heavy on his tongue.


	3. Chapter 3

Nnoitra likes to nap in the sunshine especially on cold winter mornings, his black fur soaking up the heat and leaving him toasty warm despite the seasonal changes around him. Today is no different; he’d only put up a token effort to go sniffing around near the mouth of the cave before picking out a spot in the snow, settling down while the alphas decided to forage farther out. While they have plenty of food, the alphas are adamant in hunting out as much as possible and bringing it back to the pack so they can continue storing it for emergency situations. Avalanches could strand them this high up on the mountain, though Nnoitra half-thinks Gin’s fox magic should be enough to dig them out of most trouble they get into.

Winter is passing quickly, especially with Tesla. Nnoitra is loathe to admit that any alpha could ever be considered  _ bearable _ but the small golden wolf has been his almost constant companion since he joined the pack, a feat that would have ended in his death if he was anyone else. But Nnoitra… Is tolerant of him. He always gives Nnoitra first dibs on anything they take down together, probably alpha manners but Nnoitra is happy to accept.

He keeps his hands to himself and never presumes he can help himself to Nnoitra’s body, never pushes him or pressures him even though hunting outside of the territory would present the perfect opportunity. Rather, he is polite and calm and well-mannered, and Nnoitra doesn’t mind having an extra set of jaws when he gets too tired or lazy to go for the throat himself. The fact Tesla tends to listen to what he tells him to do and never questions him too much or tries to argue with him only makes him that much more of a benefit to have around.

Some of the other omegas are sleeping out in the sun with Nnoitra, taking advantage of the fact that even in a mismatched pack with no clear bond between the lot of them, the alphas will still dote and care for and cater to them. Even Nnoitra, prickly and foul-tempered on a good day, can get what he wants as long as he makes his voice the right tone of simpering.

Usually, it’s not worth it. But he likes knowing he can do it just the same.

He opens a single eye to take stock of his surroundings, confident in the peace and quiet this close to home. Ulquiorra is a small black curl of fur not far away, his pointed snout and fluffy tail more fox-like than they are wolf-like but Nnoitra has seen him scar muzzles for making comments about what a cute little  _ vixen _ he is. Starrk’s body is curled so that his pup can nestle into his side, and every so often he lazily raises his head so he can groom her soft golden fur. Mila Rose rolls onto her back as he watches, paws loosely curled in the air.

The only non-wolf here is Grimmjow; the massive sprawl of the white tiger almost blends into the snow in places, his stripes easy to mistake for fallen tree branches if you did not know how to look for the slow rise and fall of his side. He  _ looks _ heavier than the last time Nnoitra really sat down to take a look at him, but he might just be imagining that.

Aizen is outside with them this morning, flanked by Tosen and Gin. His head rests neatly on his paws, his golden eyes sharp as they dart around the clearing, always looking for signs of danger and assessing his surroundings. Gin is more preoccupied with licking Aizen’s ears, half-climbing on top of him to reach them better while Tosen, ever quiet, sleeps at Aizen’s side.

The three of them make quite a trio. Nnoitra’s never known a pack to be led like this before.

Just because he’s never been a real member of a pack— not in his adult life, at least— means he’s ignorant to how they usually run. Pack dynamics mean that no alpha stays in control forever because eventually, someone faster or stronger or smarter comes along, outwits them or beats them down, and takes their place as leader. Betas are common enough, seconds-in-command that protect the alpha’s pack and ensure that all challenges go through them first. To fight Aizen, you would have to get through…

Nnoitra isn’t sure if you would have to get through Gin or Tosen first for that honor.

A familiar set of footfalls has him closing his eye back, pretending to be asleep as he senses someone daring to approach him. But the presence halts and Nnoitra sighs, lifting his head from his paws to find Tesla standing not far away, but out of his personal space. A heavy, fat rabbit hangs from his jaws, dead but not badly torn. Not  _ eaten, _ either.

Tesla has brought a rabbit back with him and dances nervously on his paws, his eye intent on Nnoitra’s own as he thrusts his jaw out at him.

_ A gift? _ Why the hell would Tesla bring him food? Nnoitra can and does hunt for himself, but… The smell, and Nnoitra has always liked rabbit even if it takes quite a few to fill him up. He isn’t hungry enough to want more than just the one right now.

Instead of just lying the rabbit in front of him, Tesla waits. Finally, Nnoitra nods just once and Tesla takes a few steps forward so he can deposit the rabbit just in front of Nnoitra’s paws. The kill was quick and clean and careful to strip as little flesh from the animal as possible, and Nnoitra has to admire that even if he’s still slightly confused about why Tesla brought him something in the first place.

Slightly more annoying is the way Tesla sits on his haunches and patiently waits.

Nnoitra knows what Tesla is waiting for and slowly pushes himself to his feet, giving himself a small shake to rid his fur of the excess snow clinging to it before he bumps Tesla’s snout with his own in thanks. Anyone else would have gotten a snap but Tesla is. It’d be like kicking a puppy and Nnoitra has at least  _ some _ kind of moral guidelines.

When the sun starts to slink below the horizon, the rest of the alphas slowly slink their way back home. Nnoitra remains curled up comfortably until he sees a familiar pelt of rosy golden fur, pushing himself up to his feet, shaking snow out of his coat as he trots after Szayel toward the mouth of the cave. When they reach the entrance, Szayel smoothly transitions back and Nnoitra follows suit, towering over the alpha.

“Have fun today?” he teases, dropping his elbow onto Szayel’s shoulder.

“You know how I feel about hunting.” Szayel wrinkles a nose at him but a moment later, a familiar hand slips into the small of Nnoitra’s back, guiding him down the hallway toward the healing rooms that belong to Szayel and Szayel alone.

Alphas are not known for being excellent healers but Szayel excels at everything he puts his mind to, constantly striving toward perfection no matter what limitations he faces. Their pack never had a healer before him but Szayel has been abnormally good at it, playing with herbs and medicinal plants alongside traditional medicine based on his own whims and understanding of how they work together. His healing energy is far more volatile than most and it almost  _ hurts _ to have him fix anything, but beggars can hardly be choosers and the lot of them have had Szayel put them back together after.

“Tesla brought you a rabbit.” Szayel’s voice is almost accusatory. “I saw him catch it and carry it off back toward the den. And now you smell like rabbit.”

“Do I?” Nnoitra asks, affecting a bored tone of voice. “I didn’t even notice.”

Szayel wrinkles his nose. “You noticed. You’re just pretending that you didn’t.”

“You’re awfully gossipy these days,” Nnoitra quips, and Szayel scowls up at him meaningfully from behind his glasses, pushing the frames back up onto his nose.

The healing rooms are empty today, so Nnoitra makes himself at home on one of the beds, stretched out on his back with an arm curled under his head. If Szayel minds, he never says it. Instead, he sits down at the table in the corner, a massive wooden slab covered in pill bottles, jars of liquid, and all manner of herbs and blends that Szayel himself has made, and he busies himself with whatever he was working on before he left.

In a way, the healing rooms are just an extension of Szayel’s den, and he should be uncomfortable having Nnoitra so casually  _ in _ his space but nothing about their relationship has ever been what someone would classify as  _ normal. _ Szayel dug silver bullets out of him with his bare hands, burning his own fingers in the process, and Nnoitra brought him a deer calf to thank him for the effort when he was back on his feet. There were jokes made about how Szayel had yet to knot him; Nnoitra knew he never would.

Szayel just didn’t  _ react _ to omegas the way most alphas did.

“Are you going to admit it to yourself ever?” Szayel asks him.

Nnoitra huffs in his direction. “Admit what? If Tesla wasn’t to be all weird and hero worshippy because I brought him into the pack, so be it. I don’t give a shit.”

“He’s not hero worshipping you and you know it.” Szayel shakes his head as if this should be  _ obvious _ but Nnoitra has no idea how it could be to him. “He’s  _ courting _ you, Nnoitra.”

The words make Nnoitra’s nose wrinkle and he sighs, glaring at the ceiling of the healing rooms as he listens to Szayel work at his table. “Don’t say that. Don’t fucking say that.”

“It’s true. He adores you. He came to see me a few days ago because of a nasty cut he got on his arm and he was asking me about you because he could smell you here.” Szayel gives him a pointed look; Nnoitra nuzzles his face into the pillow beneath his head in answer. “Why would he be doing that? He wants to get to know you better so he can court you.”

Nnoitra clicks his tongue. “That’s the dumbest thing you’ve said all day.”

“You can pretend you don’t see it, but I know you do.” Szayel curls a hand beneath his chin, golden eyes glittering over the top of his glasses. “The way he looks at you. The way he follows you around a bit like a lost puppy. Bringing food is very symbolic from an alpha to an omega, and you know how it’s going to look to the pack.”

“I’ve not done shit to lead him on. He can’t  _ possibly… _ ” Nnoitra trails off, tilts his head back. “Hmm. Walked right into his den and  _ sat _ on his dresser. Maybe a bad idea.”

“A very bad idea,” Szayel agrees. “You walk into an alpha’s den and make yourself at home, it’s gonna look bad. It looks  _ bad _ that my healing rooms always smell like spring. I wonder who would be causing that? Certainly not  _ me, _ my scent is nothing like that.”

Cocking his head, Nnoitra smirks. “Ask me to go then,  _ alpha. _ ”

He watches Szayel’s nose twitch before the rose-haired alpha turns back to his work. “Of course I don’t. You never listen, anyway. So, you’ve got the new alpha courting you after swearing up and down you didn’t want a mate of your own. What do you do from here?”

“Reject him, I guess. I’m not dealing with this.” Nnoitra sighs, scrubs a hand over his face. “I really didn’t want to have to deal with this. None of the pack alphas were bothering me.”

Szayel raises an eyebrow at him. “Not because you’re prickly, because they think we’re… Involved with one another. They can smell you in my  _ actual _ den since it’s connected to these rooms, and I’ve been in your room enough to make them wonder.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Nnoitra should not be surprised; if he actually  _ wanted _ an alpha, well, Szayel is not the worst choice he could have made. He’s hardly the doting and adoring type, so he wouldn’t be up under Nnoitra’s feet at all times trying to protect him, and he’s annoyed enough every time Nnoitra gets hurt that he wouldn’t be super concerned for him, either. “Maybe you should rut me through my next heat just to give them something to talk about. How long’s it been since you got laid, anyway?”

“Not long enough,” Szayel says delicately, and Nnoitra laughs at his pinched expression.

He flips Szayel off when the alpha glances in his direction. “I’m kidding, Pink. I don’t want your knot. I’m not even sure you  _ like _ to knot omegas.”

“I don’t,” Szayel confirms. “I’m surprised. You finally made an astute observation.”

“Speaking of heat.” Nnoitra folds his arms under his head, luxuriating on the mattress and ignoring the way Szayel grumbles at him for it. “Think you can float me something?”

“What.” Szayel’s voice is so blank that Nnoitra  _ has _ to look at him, snickering at how surprised the alpha is. “ _ What? _ Since when do you want to skip a heat? You’ve never suppressed anything in the entire time I’ve known you, Nnoitra.”

Raising an eyebrow just because he wants to be an asshole, Nnoitra affects his voice into something just as flat and disbelieving. “Are you asking an omega for details about his heat? That’s scandalous for you, you don’t like it when I talk about sex.”

“Far be it from me not to want to listen to you talk about which orifice you put your fingers or sexual toys into,” Szayel says, seeming to pointedly ignore Nnoitra’s hyena shriek of laughter. “Why? You’ve never suppressed a heat before. You’ve told me you’d rather die than do something like that. So why are you asking me this?”

Nnoitra shrugs, fans himself with a hand. “I’m getting  _ tired _ of dealing with it. Alpha rut is  _ easy, _ you stick your dick in something soft and wet and you’re good to go.”

“Easy?” Szayel snorts. “Easy, he says. I go through  _ hours _ of scrubbing down these rooms  _ and _ my den because my instincts won’t let me rest until my space is clean for a mate.”

“Then get a mate who doesn’t give a fuck if you wanna rut them down into the dirt and you’re good to go.” Nnoitra scratches the side of his nose. “It’s fucked-up. I’m tired and unfocused and I want someone to shove their knot in me and it makes me stupid. I don’t  _ like _ being sad about not having someone to cuddle me. It’s  _ annoying _ and it means that going out and hunting is just a giant pheromone bomb to lone alphas.”

Szayel makes a sympathetic noise at him, which is terrible. “Why not just ask Tesla to rut you through your heat, then? He likes you. You can just tell him it’s no strings attached.”

“That’s the best way possible to tell him I don’t want him to mark me. Let him stick his knot in me.” Nnoitra is too close to his heat, and his brain is stupid. For just a moment, he thinks about that. On his hands and knees, Tesla on top of him, holding him down—  _ What the fuck. Stop that. _ “Nah. I think I’ll just suppress it and tell him to fuck off.”

“Well, if you say so.” Szayel disappears into his store room and returns a moment later, a small paper packet in his hands. “This will get you through one heat. Take them when your pre-heat begins. Any earlier, your body might process it before you’re ready to, and it won’t last the whole heat. Any later, and it might not kick in in time.”

Nnoitra tucks the packet away into his pocket, dragging Szayel over by the wrist, licking a hot stripe along his forearm before smirking up at him. “Thank you,  _ alpha. _ ”

The hot flush in Szayel’s cheeks and the way he blinks a few times before wiping his arm off on his shirt tells Nnoitra that his own rut cycle must be close. Gross; they might be syncing up because they spend so much time together. “You are disgusting.”

“And you lived with humans far too long before coming to us. Licking is  _ normal. _ ” Nnoitra remembers licking Tesla’s snout and winces; he maybe led him on a little. “Get used to it.”

Szayel sits back at his table. “I know all the places your tongue has been, mind.”

“Fair.” Nnoitra drags himself off of the mattress and stretches, and just to mess with Szayel’s head, he purposefully fans his scent around a little. “I guess that’s fair, anyway.”

Golden eyes meet his own directly, his only warning before Szayel fans him with his own scent right back and Nnoitra makes a choked, garbled noise in his throat because Szayel smells  _ good, _ medicinal herbs and his own earthy scent beneath that. He’s too close to his own heat for his own good because he’s half-thinking about baring his throat to Szayel, inviting him to just  _ fuck _ him here and now on the bed—

Okay. Time to go and occupy himself with something to distract him.

“Tell Tesla you don’t want him,” Szayel reminds him on his way out.

Nnoitra snorts in his general direction. “I’ll keep that in mind. Have a nice night, asshole.”

He thinks about spending the rest of the night with his hand between his legs to avoid doing something stupid like trying to nest or thinking about slinking off to Tesla’s room to spread out for him. And he needs to bother Gin about scent blocking his room for him.

Maybe bringing Tesla all the way back here was a mistake after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohhhhhhh alpha szayel is kinda hot =/ also the ulquiorra/yammy agenda was not really My Thing but there's a couple fics [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16918992) and [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14767347) that fucked up my ability to think and so =/ damn =/


	4. Chapter 4

Tesla tells himself to stop courting Nnoitra every time he slips up and does it.

He remembers their conversation from the first day the two of them met every time he drops something freshly dead at Nnoitra’s paws, when he dusts snow off of Nnoitra’s muzzle or when the two of them end up curled against each other to sleep when the night grows late but not late enough to properly retire to the cave. More than once, Tesla has caught himself turning to sleepily lick Nnoitra’s ears, long fur soft and silky under his tongue. Though Nnoitra never snaps at him to stop, Tesla is no fool.

Someone like Nnoitra Gilga could never have feelings for him. Or feelings for  _ anyone. _

Maybe the rose-haired alpha. Tesla needed to visit him just once so far and was struck by how heavy Nnoitra’s scent was in the healing rooms that belonged to Szayelaporro, how it seemed to permeate the mattresses as if he spent much time there. Though he has no right to be annoyed about it, Tesla is irritated by it. The alpha only patched him up and sent him on his way with no warning about leaving Nnoitra alone, though, so Tesla assumes they must not be interested in each other and goes on his way.

Nnoitra is close to pre-heat. Tesla can smell it on the air when the two of them are close together, the honeyed sweetness of Nnoitra’s pheromones building up slowly beneath his skin and perfuming the air around him. What a lie of a scent. Nnoitra is not sweet or gentle in any shape or form and Tesla is certain the universe picked his scent just to torment him.

Rutting Nnoitra would be like rolling in a field of spring flowers and he  _ wants. _ He wants so much he is almost sick with himself, sick with the idea of earning Nnoitra’s love.

He keeps to himself this afternoon while the others go out to hunt, shutting himself up in his room so he can have some breathing room from this situation. Despite not knowing him well, the woman Nelliel that Nnoitra seemed to hate so much took him aside and told him, sweetly and patiently, not to waste his time with Nnoitra. She understood. Nnoitra is a wild and fierce omega and therefore unique, but his personality refused to mesh with anyone else’s and likely, Tesla would end up broken hearted over him rather than happy. He knows Nelliel is right. Only a fool would choose to believe otherwise.

But when his door swings open without warning, revealing Nnoitra’s long lanky frame in the doorway, Tesla’s heart climbs up into his throat just the same. “Nnoitra?”

“Are you sick?” Nnoitra shuts the door behind him, pulling his lean body up onto the dresser, which is his favorite place to sit. “You didn’t show up with everyone else.”

Tesla blinks up at him slowly from his place on his futon, sitting up carefully and running a hand through his sleep-tousled hair. “I’m tired and thought I’d just sleep today and try to feel better by this evening. Did Aizen-sama ask you to come check on me?”

“Does he need to ask me?” Nnoitra asks, and Tesla frowns at him. “You didn’t show up and I guess I was just wondering where you were. Does it matter?”

“No.” Tesla has no desire to prick Nnoitra’s delicate temper this early in the day.

Even with the lamp light in the room as dimmed as it can be, Tesla can make out every line of Nnoitra in the darkness. The high sharp features, the pale violet of his eye and the scars peeking out from beneath a pale eyepatch. The long dark hair that wraps around his lean back like a cloak, the subtle curve of hips flaring out from his slim waist.

Tesla should have let Nnoitra handle the hunter himself and never came to aid him.

“Well, as you can see, I’m fine.” Tesla lies back down on the futon, trying to ignore the way Nnoitra curls a hand beneath his chin and continues to stare. “Is that all you wanted?”

Nnoitra hums. “No, actually, it wasn’t. Sit back up. I need to talk to you about something.”

“All right.” Tesla feels a prickle of unease itch beneath his skin but he does as asked.

“You’ve been courting me.” Nnoitra’s lips twitch at the corners as if the concept amuses him and Tesla winces at the sight. “Why the hell have you been doing that?”

So this is how it’s going to go. Though Tesla expected this, he can hardly say he  _ wants _ to deal with it like this. In his den, with Nnoitra hardly controlling a smile of laughter at how ludicrous the entire idea must seem to him. Being without a pack  _ worked _ for Tesla and was at least certainly better than having someone treat his feelings with such callous behavior, though he supposes he should have expected such a thing from Nnoitra. The omega was never shy about lying out just how much of a bastard he was in the short time Tesla has known him. Falling for him at all was his mistake, not Nnoitra’s.

“Why does one engage in courting ritual?” Tesla asks him, and Nnoitra’s eye narrows.

“I know  _ why _ in the general sense,” he says, his tone telling Tesla not to fuck with him. “I want to know why you’re trying to court  _ me. _ There are better omegas in the pack.”

_ Better omegas? _ “I don’t share a similar opinion, Nnoitra.”

“Idiot.” Again, Tesla winces, but Nnoitra continues on. “You’re an idiot. Do I fucking look warm and cozy to you? Think you can keep me in your den and I’ll just go quietly? You’re not gonna knock me up and keep me in a nest. That ain’t the kind of shit I’m interested in.”

It takes powerful effort for Tesla to keep his expression muted. “I am aware of this.”

“So court someone else. You’re wasting your time with me. Ain’t interested.” Nnoitra smiles at him, and it’s a cruel smile, one that hits between Tesla’s ribs like a dagger.

A burn of anger throbs below everything else, though he doubts he could muster up a growl for Nnoitra even if he had a hunter’s gun loaded with silver bullets nudging against his temple. Yes, Tesla is angry. He doesn’t mind that Nnoitra has no feelings to return, and rather expected such an outcome. But to have his feelings trampled on in such a way stings especially when Nnoitra never turned down his affections before this moment. He always took the food Tesla brought to him and never complained when Tesla groomed him, and now here he is talking to Tesla like he’s an errant, stupid child.

“I had no intention of forcing you into a role you were not interested in filling,” Tesla says slowly, leaning heavily against the wall behind him. He spends too much time with Nnoitra, he knows. He should hunt more often with the other alphas. Perhaps after today, he can make such a thing commonplace rather than rare. “And I doubt any of the other omegas in the pack are half as interesting as you are. That being said, I will back off.”

Surprise flickers in Nnoitra’s eye for just a moment before he snorts. “Whatever. Alphas are all the same. I’ve seen it. You say you’re different, and then you’re not.”

“If I was interested in having an omega play house with me, I would have chosen someone more suitable for the role.” The words roll off of Tesla’s tongue with more poison than he intends and he sees Nnoitra’s lips pull back from his teeth. “I’m not an idiot, Nnoitra. I know you don’t want to raise pups and remain in the den. I knew that the day I met you.”

“Then why?” Nnoitra asks, a subtle demand ringing through his voice.

Tesla blinks at him. “Do the reasons matter? If you have no feelings for me, then it shouldn’t. Anything I say won’t be worth listening to.”

“What are you— I asked you a fucking question.” Nnoitra stands and Tesla frowns at him, not exactly thrilled with having Nnoitra trying to intimidate him in his own den. “Why me, then? Huh? No alpha with a fucking brain comes after an omega like me.”

Is this a form of self-loathing? Tesla would not be surprised. “I do not want someone to tend house for me in my absence. I want a partner who runs with me. Simple as that.”

Nnoitra barks laughter, and Tesla flinches. “God, you’re something else, Lindocruz.”

“You were the one who brought me back to your pack.” It comes out defensive and Tesla sees a flicker of real anger in Nnoitra’s face at his words. “I can just as easily leave if my presence is such a bother. I am used to being a loner. That is nothing new to me.”

“You wanna go? Then go.” Nnoitra gestures to the door. “I ain’t gonna stop you.”

Tesla sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I have no desire to leave, Nnoitra. I like it here. I like having a place to come back to at the end of the night, or when the sun is rising. But this is your home more than it is mine, and if being here is going to upset you, then I would leave for your comfort and security. Do you want me to go?”

“No.” Nnoitra huffs at him, turns his back on him. “I just don’t fucking get you.”

“What is there to get?” Tesla thinks about standing, but not yet. “You are an omega unlike any other. You said so yourself. I admire how different and unique you are.”

Nnoitra snorts. “No you don’t. No alpha ever has. It’s all about taming me down into something cute and friendly and soft, and that isn’t me. It’s never going to  _ be _ me. I don’t fucking want a mate. No one is allowed to own me.”

Something hot flares in Tesla’s gut and Nnoitra spins around the moment Tesla growls, the edge of his scent smelling more like rot in summer than his normal mossy smell. “I cannot imagine,” he says very slowly, choosing his words with care, “how much you have suffered at the hands of other alphas that you would think that of me. I know it’s not your fault. I don’t want you to be anything other than you are right now.”

The fierce glow of Nnoitra’s violet eye in the darkness is terrifying. “And when that changes, and you want to settle down and have a family, and I don’t, what then?”

“A lone wolf does not want a family.” Tesla stands slowly, every movement slow and measured as he walks closer to Nnoitra. “I only want a companion who will run with me, hunt with me, and fight with me. No one and nothing else. That is all I care about.”

The scoff he receives is not surprising. “Pretty words for such a lie.”

“It isn’t a lie.” Tesla steps into his personal space and he can smell Nnoitra’s scent, honeysuckle and pheromones faint just underneath, pulling at his instincts.  _ Protect me, keep me warm and safe. _ “I’ve never met anyone interesting up until I met you.”

Nnoitra sways closer to him and Tesla is almost dizzy to have him this close, to be able to pick up his scent so easily, to feel the warmth of his body curling off of his skin. But Tesla has a brain in his head and takes a few steps away, putting distance between them, slightly concerned when he realizes there are traces of Nnoitra’s scent everywhere in the air. He needs to go outside in the cold and breathe the fresh air before he gives in to the urges that are firing up in the back of his head.  _ This is what you get for not being in a pack. You’re not accustomed to omega heat scents anymore. _

“Sorry,” he says, waving a hand in front of his face. “I’m a touch dizzy from your scent.”

Nnoitra laughs and his head falls back, the sound thick and throaty. “You didn’t try to pheromone bomb me in return. That’s some serious restraint there.”

“I need to go for a run.” Tesla’s legs feel unsteady beneath him, but it won’t be so bad once he’s outside and can think. “Did you want to join me? We can run together.”

“You’ll chase me.” The sureness in Nnoitra’s voice is almost infuriating. “Ain’t looking to get rutted into the snow. It’s gonna be cold as fuck.”

Tesla should absolutely not step back into Nnoitra’s personal space but he does, smoothing his hand down the side of Nnoitra’s face, trying to put as much gentle intimacy into the touch as he can. “No, I won’t,” he says. “Unless you ask me to. And I wouldn’t rut you outside in the cold. If you chose that, we would do it here. But only if you choose that. I would sit in a room with you on the worst days of your heat and not touch you unless you explicitly asked me to do that. Do you understand, Nnoitra?”

“Yeah.” Nnoitra tilts his head, dragging his half-open mouth across Tesla’s palm. “I get it. I mean, I don’t fucking get  _ you, _ but I get that you’re saying  _ consent _ pretty loud.”

“Good.” Tesla’s palm is twitching when he takes his hand away from Nnoitra’s face. “Then if you want to accompany me, you can. Just a quick run to clear my head and nose.”

“All right.” Nnoitra pats himself on the cheek, almost hard enough to be a slap. “Let’s run.”

There are members of their pack lulling around outside but neither of them pay any attention to them, and Tesla lets Nnoitra lead without staying right behind him. He runs off to the side instead, and they run downwind so that he doesn’t have to scent Nnoitra the entire time the two of them are together. The burn of the cold in his nose is a welcome change, but it makes him think far too much about Nnoitra’s words.

Had he given the impression he wanted an omega who would be soft-spoken, quiet, and willing to stay behind while he did all of the work? He doesn’t think so. He doesn’t think he gave Nnoitra any impression that he’d ever want someone other than Nnoitra himself.

He likes the fire in Nnoitra’s eye, the venom on his tongue, the forceful personality and the bite of his words. It was there the moment he met him; Tesla had been like a fucking  _ puppy _ for Nnoitra, unable to help himself around the omega who cold shouldered him and flicked snow onto his nose. Who only spitefully gave him any of his kill.

How could any other omega appeal to him the same way that Nnoitra does?

In the end, Tesla has to give the hunters credit. They must have learned something about scents and sounds. He doesn’t smell or hear them coming, and by the time his ears register the click of the trigger and the bang of the gun, his leg is on fire.

Silver burns. It’s a poison and it sinks in deep and burns, and Tesla loses his footing and goes tumbling in the snow as blood drips from the bullet wound on his hind leg. Nnoitra skids to a stop but Tesla barks at him, telling him to keep going.  _ To go home. _

He hadn’t even noticed when they left the pack territory.

Nnoitra hesitates, ears back and lips pulled over his teeth, long body slinking forward and coiled to pounce, but Tesla barks at him again. It’s harder to tell in wolf form but he can smell the distress rolling off of Nnoitra in waves before he straightens, gives Tesla one last long look, and then takes off into the distance just as the hunters spill from the trees and come to surround Tesla where he has fallen, bleeding into the snow.

He pushes himself up despite the pain and snarls even as a gun is jammed into his muzzle.

“This is the one,” the hunter on the other end of the gun says, nudging Tesla’s muzzle harder, metal knocking against his teeth. “This is the bastard that got Gremmy.”

“I thought so.” Another voice, this time a gun prodding into the wound on Tesla’s leg, pressing into the hole and twisting. “Let’s take him back, then. If his pack shows up to save him, then so be it. We’ll give ‘em a few days. And if they don’t, we’ll take our time.”

The first hunter chuckles softly. “There are things we can do before they show up.”

_ They won’t, _ Tesla thinks. He isn’t afraid, merely understanding of the situation. The hunter he’d killed to protect Nnoitra had friends who have now found him. So be it.  _ They would never. They have no reason to. They would never take such a risk. _

Slender fingers slip into the wound on his leg and  _ twist _ and Tesla howls at the pain, sudden and sharp and jolting through his body. The hunter laughs and twists harder, digging his fingers into the meat, ripping the wound wider open so he can jam his gun in deeper. It’s too much and Tesla wheezes, the poison of the silver and the pain working to make it harder for him to think. He can hear them both laughing as consciousness slips away, the world in front of him wrapped in heavy gauze that grows thicker by the second.

He’d always envisioned himself dying just like this. When the heavy metal of a gun barrel is brought down on his skull, his head drops down into the snow.

In the distance, he can almost make out the sound of a cackling howl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really hate the sternritter for the most part with like 4 or 5 exceptions so guess who the hunters get to be~ also gremmy's already dead oops. that's what you get for being mean to yachiru you loser.
> 
> also you know what's wild is that the seiyuu for nnoitra and tesla covered ranbu no memory together so we just have nnoites singing a love song to each other. that's fucking canon babes.


	5. Chapter 5

When the full moon rises high in the sky and the night is still and dead, the animals nearby too afraid to risk coming out this close to the mouth of the cave, the Aizen pack spills out into the cold air. Soft footfalls on the snow mark their passage and Nnoitra tries to find some solace in the sound, noting that he has numbers. He has bodies. He has jaws willing to snap shut on any hunter they encounter on their way and, in Ulquiorra, a nose sharp enough to follow a four-day trail even in the middle of a rainstorm. By this logic, there is no reason that recovering Tesla and bringing him home will be difficult.

The nerves jumping in Nnoitra’s gut and the restless energy plaguing his limbs, making his legs twitch, would like to argue the point with him.

Nelliel bumps her shoulder against his foreleg, the highest she can reach on four feet and with the significant height difference between them even in these forms. Nnoitra, to his credit, does not snap at her or attempt to bite her head off for daring to touch him. Instead, he huffs and bumps his muzzle against her head in silent thanks.

When he closes his eyes, he can see Tesla on the insides of his eyelids. Golden fur matted with blood, the snow beneath him melting from the heat of the liquid as it dripped from the bullet wound in his leg. The stink of silver in the air and the sounds of footsteps that told him they might have been outnumbered. In the back of his mind, he can remember their words, that Tesla was the one who killed their friend.

The hunter who came after Nnoitra with a gun. The one Tesla killed to protect him. Incredibly, ironically, it is Nnoitra’s fault that Tesla was shot and kidnapped.

He leads Ulquiorra to the patch of wood where the blood is still visible on the ground, the sight making Nnoitra’s gut churn. Ulquiorra pads up to the spot, sniffs, and tilts his head, nose twitching in the air before he turns his body, setting them on a new pathway.

It feels like hours that they pad through the snowfall. Nnoitra’s nose is cold and his fur feels stiff and heavy on his frame, his breath leaving little puffs of white in the air as he keeps close to Ulquiorra’s tail. Yammy is just as close, his eyes fixed on his much smaller mate as if daring anyone or anything to attempt to take Ulquiorra away from him. Would Ulquiorra have run away if Yammy told him to? Would Grimmjow? The questions make Nnoitra’s head buzz and ache and he grits his teeth, disgusted with himself. Who cared about pain? Who cared about bloodshed? He’d… He’d left Tesla behind to  _ die. _

By the time they brought him home, he would want nothing to do with Nnoitra for sure.

The house Ulquiorra leads them to is massive and sprawling and on the edge of the forest, close to the roads as if the hunters have learned better than to make their homes too deep within the trees. He huffs and looks back at Nnoitra, his golden eyes flaring green the only warning any of them receive before Ulquiorra shifts back to human form.

In this cold, not wearing their wolf fur is a detriment, but they need to speak clearly to one another. Hanging back behind the trees and out of sight of the lights ringing the house, they crouch in the snow with Ulquiorra in the center of their group.

“He’s inside,” he says plainly, and Nnoitra feels a whine rise in his throat that he forcefully chokes back down, refusing to show even a shred of weakness. “There are many scents here, and I have no way of knowing just how many people are attached to them. I only smell one living wolf, an alpha. Swamp, so it must be Tesla. Does that sound right?”

“More like a wetland,” Nnoitra grouses, and Ulquiorra rolls his eyes at him. “Yeah… Yeah.”

Nelliel stretches out a hand to touch his forehead and Nnoitra flinches back from her touch as soon as he feels the cool brush of her fingers. “You’re awfully warm.”

“You didn’t take the suppressants.” Szayel shakes his head, an expression of disbelief spreading across his face. “You came to get them from me and I  _ told _ you to take them and when and you chose not to do it. Nnoitra, it’s not safe for you to—”

“Who gives a  _ fuck? _ ” Nnoitra hisses, and Szayel’s eyes widen at him. He must be putting off pretty awful pheromones because Yammy clumsily rubs a hand up and down his spine, as if trying to soothe him. “Tesla’s in there. Who gives a fuck about my safety?”

“I do,” Nelliel tells him, and Nnoitra scowls at her because she  _ always _ just has to—

Apacci cuts him off before he can snap at her. “Nnoitra doesn’t give a shit if he lives or dies and that’s admirable as hell, so let him be. We get Tesla out of there fast enough and it won’t matter how close he is to his heat cycle, right? So what’s our plan?”

Nnoitra amends the thoughts he’s had about alphas. Maybe there are  _ two _ good ones.

“Aizen-sama says that casualties on our side are unacceptable,” Ulquiorra says firmly, “but they are more than welcome on the other side. With that in mind, we should—”

A gunshot cracks through the night, a bullet embedding itself in the trunk above Ulquiorra’s head. Wood splinters and tiny pieces of it land on top of his head.

The reaction is instant; they all shrink back further into the woods, and Nnoitra swivels his head to see two figures in the spill of golden light ringing the massive house. One of them is tall and blond, a rifle resting against one broad shoulder as he stares up into the woods not far from their current location. The person next to him is petite in comparison, a long white coat hiding their body from view, but their hair is long and black like an oil slick.

Nnoitra winces, shoving his own hair back out of his face. “Shit. They fucking saw us.”

“No,” Ulquiorra says, shaking his head. “I am well aware of how far human eyes can see in the dark. Even sharp eyes would not have detected us at this distance.”

“Puppies,” the smaller person croons, and Nnoitra thinks it sounds like a man, his voice soft and higher pitched than he would have expected, “we know you’re out there.”

“They can’t,” Ulquiorra insists, his eyes flashing, threatening rage.

The blond man sighs, shifts his gun. “You sure they’re out there?”

“I told you that I’m never wrong about this things, Haschwalth. Learn to trust me.” The smaller man takes a handful of steps toward the woods, not close enough to leave the circle of light. “And I can smell them. So many of them came to save their companion.”

“How many?” the blond— Haschwalth— asks, tilting his head.

In answer, the smaller man tilts his head, a hand rising to cup his chin, and Nnoitra realizes he can’t see the rest of the man’s face. Large dark eyes are peering into the trees over the top of a white paper mask. “If I had to guess, I would say a dozen. Easily.”

“Fuck,” Halibel murmurs. “Why do I get the feeling that that isn’t a human?”

Nnoitra exhales slowly, and it’s on his inhale when he smells it. Blood, by all rights, smells mostly the same no matter who or what it comes out of. Deer blood and rabbit blood are not so heavily scented that he would be able to tell them apart if he was sniffing containers of the shit, but blood that comes out of a werewolf is different. Because their scents carry on  _ everything, _ so their blood is much the same.

He can smell Tesla’s blood on this smaller man. He can’t see it, but he can smell it.

“Then we’ll kill him on our way in,” Nnoitra murmurs, his body trembling. “I’ll do it myself.”

A hand comes to rest on his shoulder and he turns his head to meet Nelliel’s eyes over his shoulder. “Be careful,” she cautions. “They are laying a trap for us. They expected us to walk into it. We don’t even know where Tesla is in that ridiculous house.”

The sound of soft movement to the right has them all turning to see a familiar fluff of silver creeping through the underbrush that transitions smoothly back to Gin a moment later, his teeth flashing in the darkness as he grins. “That’s ‘cause he ain’t in the house.”

“Are you going to make me look for you?” The small man asks. “I’ll be glad to play a game with you, though I didn’t think mongrels like you preferred hide and seek.”

Gin tilts his head, regards the man coolly. “Go around the back,” he says softly, shifting forward, hands pressed down into the snow, so suddenly and with so much force that Nnoitra hears something under his hands snap. It could be twigs; it sounds like bone. “I’m going to deal with our inquisitive companion here. No matter what you hear, do not turn.”

“Around the house,” Nnoitra says, and Gin nods once. “They’re keeping him  _ outside?” _

Again, Gin nods. “Yes, Nnoitra. He’s chained up with silver in the backyard to a post, and there are people watching the windows prepared for the moment when any of you come out of the trees to collect him. There are more of their soldiers in the trees. Kill them.”

Ulquiorra hums softly. “You don’t have to ask more than once, Gin.”

“I’ll take care of our viewers in the windows,” Szayel says, shifting, his hand slipping behind him to paw at something. “It’s going to smell  _ awful _ but we’ll be able to get through it if we use our noses. They won’t be able to see, which is important.”

“Got it.” Nnoitra turns toward the back of the house. “Let’s go get Tesla and leave.”

Humans do not go down without a fight but werewolves are more than willing to put up that fight. There are four hunters positioned in the woods with guns, and Nnoitra stands back and lets the alphas have them. Nelliel and Halibel are graceful hunters, taking their prey down by the throats and biting down so quickly that their faint, wet gurgles aren’t audible enough to their friends in the windows of the house. Szayel is vicious; he doesn’t let go when the human dies, instead ripping out the front of his throat. And Yammy… Is like Tesla, and takes the human down by the head, the wet crunch of bone and the slick squelch of brains the only sound the human’s body emits as it topples over.

With those hunters dead, they can see into the backyard of the house and this time Nnoitra whines. A soft and pitiful noise leaves his throat when he sees Tesla, the chains wrapped around his frame and padlocked together, weighing him down and keeping him attached to the steel post in the center of the dead landscape. He smells dully like silver, but like it’s been diluted. The thought makes Nnoitra’s gut hurt.

He should be dead by now. He  _ should _ be dead, but they left him alive to chain him up out here and wait to see if he would be enough to lure a rescue mission.

Szayel has to take human form so he can throw a small silver canister into the backyard, and there is no warning before smoke billows into the air. It’s thick and white and it makes Nnoitra’s eyes burn. He waits one second, then bursts into the backyard.

From the side of the house where they left Gin, there’s a scream and gunshots firing.

Werewolves have terrifying strength; Yammy gets his teeth in the chainlinks tangled in Tesla’s fur and  _ shakes _ until the links break. Nnoitra helps him. It’s slow going even like this, the chains heavy and thick, but they’re relentless and this close he can  _ smell _ Tesla, Tesla’s fur against his muzzle, Tesla’s exhausted whimpers  _ destroying _ him.

Another canister is thrown into the yard before the first can thin out. There are humans cursing, footsteps blind in the smoke. A scream and a flash of gold, Halibel bringing down someone foolish enough to enter the yard with them.

Blood soaks the ground as she rips through muscle and tendon and the human wails, loud and long, but Nnoitra hears it through what sounds like a filter.

_ Free Tesla. Take Tesla home. Save Tesla. _ It’s all he can thing. All that matters.

When Tesla’s muzzle is free, he raises his head weakly and licks Nnoitra’s muzzle, and it makes something inside of him crack, threatening to break at any minute.

A gunshot goes off above their heads. Footsteps bounding the yard, more screams, the snarls and growls of the alphas watching their backs as they work to free Tesla. Ulquiorra, the fastest of them all, is quick and silent, darting like a black shadow in half-empty smoke. Another canister. Nnoitra’s nose  _ burns _ but he doesn’t care.

All he cares about is taking Tesla home. Back to the cave. Back to safety.

A hand tangles in the fur of his back and he whips around, his teeth sinking into the meat of someone’s forearm a half-second before a dark brown shape collides with the hunter, taking them down so suddenly that Nnoitra can hear their shoulder dislocate. They didn’t let go of him fast enough and Nelliel makes them pay, and he makes a mental note to suck it the fuck up and  _ thank _ her for everything she’s done for him.

“Change back!” It’s Szayel’s voice. “Tesla, change back. Now!”

It must take an impossible effort for Tesla in his wounded and weakened state to do that, but Nnoitra can see enough through the smoke to see the moment when Tesla’s fur gives way to skin. It loosens the chains and they finally,  _ finally _ manage to get him free of them.

Thank God.  _ Thank God. _ Nnoitra turns back. He can carry him. He’ll carry Tesla home on his fucking back for miles if that’s what it takes to get him home in one piece—

The gunshot that rings out is close. Too close. And Nnoitra feels something like white hot fire burn in his chest. It  _ aches _ and he coughs and then his mouth is wet with blood.

_ Oh. That’s not good. _ He raises a hand toward his mouth blindly, looking down at his fingers smeared with red. Tesla stares at him for half a second, his dull and exhausted eyes suddenly going wide, his mouth falling open. Nnoitra can’t even say anything.

He wants to tell Tesla to run.  _ Go home. It doesn’t fucking matter if I die, go _ —

Another cough, and more blood, and Nnoitra falls to his knees as the burning in his chest seems to spread, fire eating at him from the inside out.

“No,” he hears Tesla rasp. “ _ Nnoitra! _ ”

His name does not come out as a word. His name comes out as a barely-intelligible snarl.

Tesla should not be able to move in his state, with his leg wounded and in the cold. His limbs should be numb, his skin cold to the touch, his nerves frozen. Instead, he changes back into a wolf and lunges over where Nnoitra hits the snow, and dully Nnoitra hears the scream of the hunter who must have shot him. It takes all the energy he has to lift his head, eyes watering from the agony in his torso, to see Tesla has his teeth in the hunter’s shoulder, ripping. Tearing. Shredding tendon and muscle and cracking bone.

“Fuck, Nnoitra.” Nelliel is at his side and her hand touches his back, her gasp soft when it no doubt comes away bloody. “Szayel, we have to go. Nnoitra’s hurt! We have to  _ go! _ ”

Yammy picks him up in human arms, too brawny and massive for his own good, and Nnoitra coughs and hacks blood up and he thinks  _ oh, I’m dying. _ It’s that simple. There’s blood in his throat or in his lungs, in places it shouldn’t be. He’ll drown in it.

Tesla has to run to catch up with them in the woods, everyone half-tripping over roots and limbs as they get away from the house. So much smoke still billowing in the air, making it nearly impossible for the hunters to follow them unless they want to leave their wounded and dead behind. Gin joins up with them and Nnoitra can dully see the blood staining his white robes, his white skin, his silver hair. It looks black in the moonlight.

Nnoitra heaves. It hurts to breathe. His heart beats, and that hurts, too. An inferno in his chest, and he almost wants to claw at his own skin just to get it out.

Only when the woods are quiet does Szayel hurry to them, half-leaning over to see. “It’s still inside of him. Fuck.” He’s fumbling with something, something that flashes silver in the light for a second. “If I don’t get that out of him, he’s going to die.”

Tesla sounds half-mad when he speaks up. “You’re going to fucking  _ cut _ him?”

“If I leave that bullet in him, the poison will just keep spreading. He’ll die for sure. Yammy, stop.” Szayel’s hand is shaking; so is his voice. His golden eyes are wet behind his glasses. “Hold him still. Fuck, please hold him still. He’s too strong if he struggles.”

Nnoitra cackles, and blood flecks Szayel’s glasses. “Sorry ‘bout that, Doc.”

“Shut up.” Szayel’s hand yanks at the front of his shirt, and Nnoitra realizes he’s holding a knife. “Nnoitra, I’m sorry. Just hold on. J-just trust me, I wouldn’t let you die.”

“It’s my fault.” Tesla sounds like  _ he’s  _ dying. “You came to save me. It’s all my fault.”

That has Nnoitra grasping toward him and Tesla takes Nnoitra’s hand in both of his own, his face positively haunted, looking gaunt in the moonlight. “N-no,” he says, and it’s burning so much he hardly feels the pain when Szayel’s blade touches him. “T-Tesla…”

Tesla squeezes his hand. “Stay with us, Nnoitra. You have to.”

“I— I… I don’t regret.” More blood fills his mouth, dribbling from the corner of his mouth, and Tesla wipes it away with his fingers, so delicate and careful. “I don’t r-r-regret—”

“Nnoitra,  _ please, _ ” Szayel whispers, sounding on the verge of sobbing.

The last of Nnoitra’s energy goes into his words. “Don’t regret it,” he says. “Not if it’s you. N-never if it’s you. I’m s-sorry.”

Tesla’s eye widens and he shakes his head, his hand shaking as it comes to Nnoitra’s face, fingers stroking his cheek. “Don’t apologize. Stay with me and we’ll talk about it at home. Nnoitra, please stay with me. Don’t let go. Nnoitra,  _ look at me! _ ”

Nelliel’s voice shrieks through the night air.  _ “Nnoitra!” _

It’s the last thing Nnoitra hears before the entire world goes black, and the burning stops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has 2 more parts left to it~


	6. Chapter 6

Yammy holds him down and Yylfordt scrubs the blood and filth off of his bare skin until he is red and raw, and still Tesla claws at the edge of the basin and struggles to climb back onto the lip so he can return to the healing rooms, to Nnoitra. When he watched Nnoitra’s lavender eye flutter shut in the forest, the coppery scent of Nnoitra’s blood thick in his nostrils, every synapse in his body fired in panic. If Yylfordt was not physically stronger than him, it was likely Tesla might have mauled Yammy and Szayel to rescue his omega.

Despite the lack of warmth between them, though, Yylfordt responded rapidly to his younger brother being snarled at and had Tesla in a chokehold, dragging him through the woods and back to the den where Tosen waited outside for them.

Szayel ordered him washed so he could work on healing him, giving him time to attend to Nnoitra’s serious wounds. By the time they made it back to the den, Nnoitra’s skin was ashen white with blood loss and his breath was rattling in his undamaged lung, proof that he was on death’s doorstep. Even Szayel, confident and sure in his healing abilities, looked on the verge of tears as he leaned over Nnoitra’s prone form and got to work.

By the time Tesla was clean and allowed to come back, Szayel had Nnoitra stabilized to the best of his abilities, though he smelled so strongly of blood that Tesla wondered just what  _ stabilized  _ was supposed to mean. He tried to be on his best behavior while Szayel healed the bullet wound on his leg and the raw marks on his body where the chains dug in through his fur. When the healer’s back was turned, Tesla snuck into Nnoitra’s bed.

“Now, you should— Tesla.” Szayel turns and stops, tipping his head back, pressing a hand over his eyes. “You can’t be in bed with him. He needs to heal on his own.”

“I haven’t done a thing,” Tesla argues, half-curling himself around Nnoitra’s body, careful of the bandages wrapped tight around his torso. “And I can keep him warm like this.”

Szayel takes a step toward him, and a growl flares in Tesla’s throat. “Are you  _ serious? _ ”

Tesla tucks his chin on top of Nnoitra’s head, laying an arm carefully across his shoulders, and stares at Szayel from the bed. Daring him to come closer if he wants to try, but he might lose a hand in the process. Tesla has already almost lost Nnoitra once; it would take the forces of heaven and hell to remove him from his place at Nnoitra’s side now, especially when Nnoitra is hurt and needs his protection. The serious nature of his wound means there will be no protecting himself, and that coupled with the scent of his pre-heat… Tesla squeezes his eyes shut. He should be taking care of Nnoitra right now, not standing guard over his still body.  _ How _ could he have let Nnoitra get hurt?

“Szayel, you may retire for the evening.” The voice is smooth and familiar, and the hairs on the back of Tesla’s neck prickle at the sound. “You have done more than an adequate job at caring for the pack, and you need to rest. Close your door. I must speak to Tesla alone.”

Aizen steps into the room slowly and Szayel nods, bowing his head to Aizen, stilling when Aizen stretches out a hand to rest on the back of Szayel’s neck, a gentle squeeze to thank him for a job well done. Then he vanishes through a doorway, the door clicking shut behind him, leaving just Tesla and Aizen alone in the room. Slowly, Aizen shuts the door and sits down on the bed next to Nnoitra’s, folding one leg over the other.

“I’m sorry about tonight, Tesla. I heard what happened from Tosen when he came to inform me that all of you made it back. I had no idea that such a mission would be so dangerous. I sent Gin because I thought it would even our odds.” Aizen’s eyes are sad as they land on Nnoitra, who breathes slow and easy now, lost in sleep. “But I can see now that I was wrong. I did not do nearly enough to ensure everyone’s safety.”

The softness of his voice soothes Tesla somewhat, along with the soft omega scent of Aizen’s. “It’s all right, alpha. You shouldn’t have come at all. It wasn’t worth this.”

“Do you think he agrees with you?” Aizen stretches out a hand, brushes the backs of his knuckles along Nnoitra’s cheekbone. “Do you think Nnoitra would have been okay with leaving you behind? He came back in such a rush that he ran into Yammy directly.”

Tesla’s nose twitches and he smiles fondly, nosing Nnoitra’s forehead. “Poor Nnoitra.”

Silently, Aizen continues stroking Nnoitra’s face. “I found him on the edge of our territory and brought him home. He didn’t want a pack, but he liked the idea of killing hunters. It was only so much of a truth. I think he did want a pack, a home to come back to.”

“Maybe. It’s natural to want that for our kind,” Tesla murmurs against Nnoitra’s hair.

“Precisely. It’s also natural to want a mate, to care for someone enough to want to do dangerous things for them.” Aizen looks at him meaningfully. “No one has ever earned his compassion before. He was afraid for you. He  _ wanted _ to save you.”

Swallowing hard, Tesla nods. “I know that. But I wouldn’t have wanted him to do that if it meant this. No one can possibly feel good about dying like this.”

“Nnoitra knows that hunters propose a very serious risk to our kind, so he must have decided you were worth that risk.” Aizen’s hand touches Tesla’s cheek and he shivers at the warmth of Aizen’s fingers, the gentleness of his touch. “It was his decision to make, not yours. Had he left you there, he would be the one forced to live with the fact that he watched you take a bullet to the leg and left you there to die.”

Tesla nods and lays his cheek against Nnoitra’s hair. “I suppose I should stop feeling sorry for myself and focus on being the comforting presence he needs right now.”

“Very good, Tesla. That is what you should do. Focus on making your scent smooth for him so he feels safe, even asleep.” Aizen leans over to nuzzle Nnoitra’s cheek before standing, folding his hands in front of him. “Protect him for me. Take care of him and make sure he’s taken care of when he wakes up. With his body in this condition, he won’t go into heat any time soon, but the pre-heat symptoms will plague hell on him. He’ll need you near now.”

Tesla nods. “Of course, alpha. I wouldn’t dream of leaving his side now.”

“Good boy.” Aizen pats him on the head, and Tesla thinks it should feel condescending, but it doesn’t, not really. “Take good care of him. Nnoitra’s one of my omegas. He means a lot to me, even if he doesn’t particularly want to.”

“You care a lot about the omegas in this pack, huh?” Tesla asks him.

Aizen nods. “Of course I do. I started this pack largely because I care about omegas. Hunters target us differently if they know what we are and what they’re doing, and I’m tired of seeing my fellow omegas treated in such foul ways. If my former alpha wasn’t willing to do what needed to be done to prevent it, then I will.”

It’s late, and Tesla is exhausted, and none of this makes sense to him. “I see. Well, I’ll do my best to take care of Nnoitra until he wakes up. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Of course. You’re his mate now, even without the bite.” Aizen pulls the blanket up higher over both of them. “Good evening, Tesla. Sleep well.”

Nnoitra remains unconscious for the entirety of the next day and Tesla refuses to leave his side even when his limbs twitch with restless energy and his throat grows sore from growling every time Szayel ventures too close to Nnoitra. He has to enlist Yylfordt to hold Tesla down so he can check the wounds and tend to them, Nnoitra’s breathing going slightly off during the procedure and ripping a snarl out of Tesla’s throat. Szayel only gives him a look before bandaging Nnoitra up and letting Tesla resume lying beside him.

The scent of his pre-heat also weighs heavily on Tesla’s mind, but he can hardly enjoy the scent; his cock doesn’t so much as twitch, not when Nnoitra is in such dire straits. Despite Szayel’s insistence that he’s done enough to kickstart Nnoitra’s natural healing abilities, Tesla is still afraid. If he leaves for even one minute, and something happens…

“Here, you idiot.”  Yylfordt brings him food when he refuses to leave Nnoitra’s side, stopping to give his younger brother’s hair a gentle ruffle. “How’re you feeling? You look like complete shit. Did you even bother to sleep last night?”

“It’s not easy when you have an alpha in your den  _ growling _ at you,” Szayel mutters.

Tesla frowns at him. “I’m not  _ trying _ to be a nuisance, I’m just worried about him.”

“You’ll see how it is one day when you’ve got a mate of your own, Szayel. You’ll be just like him.” Yylfordt laughs when Szayel scowls at him. “Take care, Tesla. And stop growling so much, you’re going to give my brother a nervous breakdown if you’re not careful.”

After Tesla eats, he noses back down into Nnoitra’s hair and tries to sleep, letting his scent wrap in a comforting wave around Nnoitra’s body the best he can. He kisses the top of Nnoitra’s head once and plays with his hair, eyeing the bandage around his torso, having seen the exit wound Szayel carved with nothing more than a scalpel he keeps on himself for emergencies; specifically because of bullets not traveling all the way through flesh. It was the only way that Nnoitra survived such a dangerous wound.

One of his legs was filled with blood, but Szayel cleared it up as best he could. If Nnoitra’s healing abilities have truly kicked in, then why hasn’t he woken up by now?

After Tesla growls at Szayel for the fourth time before lunch, Szayel leaves the healing rooms behind and they have the space to themselves. When he comes back to check on Nnoitra’s wound, Tesla begrudgingly moves just far enough away for him to do so, nerves crawling beneath his skin as he watches. The hole on Nnoitra’s chest is almost shut.

It takes another two days before Nnoitra stirs, lavender eye fluttering open in the dim lighting of the healing rooms. Tesla’s head jerks off of the pillow and he leans over, careful as he brushes Nnoitra’s hair back out of his eye. The wound on his chest had been fully healed just this morning, which meant Nnoitra’s exhausted body would be edging its way back into a conscious state.

“Where am I?” His voice is rough and he tilts his head, pausing when he finds Tesla hovering over him. “You’re all right. I was so fucking worried about you, idiot.”

“I’m all right,” Tesla agrees. “You almost died. How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Hungry. How many days has it been?” Nnoitra sits up carefully and Tesla moves to help him, hands braced on Nnoitra’s back to help him.

“A few,” Tesla admits. “You had a rough go of it. That bullet tore a hole in one of your lungs and Szayel had to cut it out in the woods so the poison wouldn’t spread.”

“I remember that.” Nnoitra turns to look at him through one heavily lidded eye.

Tesla sits carefully still, not sure what Nnoitra is looking for until Nnoitra suddenly tucks his head against the side of Tesla’s neck, nose pressed against his scent gland so he can inhale deeply. It sends a shiver down Tesla’s spine, but he only wraps his fingers up in Nnoitra’s hair and holds him close, letting him seek whatever comfort he wants. His mind must be imagining the way Nnoitra’s arms slide around him, pulling him in close as he mouths against Tesla’s skin. The honeysuckle in the room grows stronger.

“No, Nnoitra. You’re still too weak for that. You gotta eat.” Tesla tugs gently at his hair and Nnoitra whines, trying to press closer against him.

“I was so fucking worried about you. Watching you go down in the snow was awful. I didn’t want to leave you, but you told me to.” Nnoitra’s grip on him tightens further and Tesla can almost feel a shake in his arms. “And seeing you chained down like an animal. Fuck that.”

Tesla rests his cheek against the top of Nnoitra’s head and breathes in slowly, telling himself to remain calm. “I’m sorry for frightening you. I just didn’t want them to catch you, too. I could have been fine knowing you were safe with the pack.”

“I wasn’t okay with that.” Nnoitra wheezes against his throat and Tesla lets him cling tighter, as tight as he wants to. “Fuck, I was terrified. I was pissed. I’ve never felt like that before. I fucking… Told you to fuck off and leave me alone and told you I didn’t want you and then dragged my ass halfway across the fucking forest all the way to the road to bring your ass back. Makes me look like I’m going back on my word.”

“Hush.” Tesla strokes Nnoitra’s hair as gently as he can, cuddling him in closer, letting Nnoitra fold every inch of that long body against his chest. “I’m not going to judge you for it. No one is. I spent this entire time lying next to you after getting rejected.”

Nnoitra leans back to look up at him and it makes Tesla’s chest ache to see Nnoitra’s eye is slightly red. “You’ve been here with me? The whole fucking time?”

“Yes. It would have been wrong not to take care of you. Aizen-sama even asked me to after I’d already settled in,” Tesla admits, blinking when Nnoitra huffs at him.

“Dumbass fucking alpha. You should’ve been in your own bed or something.” But Nnoitra noses back into his neck and Tesla feels lighter than air now. “Thanks, fucker. It was nice to wake up with your scent in my nose and your arms around me, and if you fucking tell anyone I just said that, I am going to rip your testicles off.”

Tesla laughs softly and nods, rocking Nnoitra back and forth, rubbing soothing circles into his back as he does. He wraps Nnoitra in his scent, trying not to think how floral Nnoitra smells, how spring sweet and delicious because he needs to wash up, and eat, and probably nest if he plans to go through his heat. Tesla will sit outside the room and let himself play an air freshener if that’s what will make Nnoitra feel safe.

When he says as much out loud, Nnoitra leans back and punches him so hard in the arm he almost falls off of the bed. Only Nnoitra’s hand fisting in the front of his shirt saves him.

“You think I went all that way to save you and I don’t… You’re so fucking stupid.” Nnoitra sighs and helps Tesla right himself. “Yeah, I need to take a bath and eat and whatever the fuck else but you’re going to be right there next to me.”

The words have Tesla’s eyes blowing wide. “I’m what? Are you sure?”

“I— I mean.” Nnoitra clears his throat. “I thought that’s what you wanted?”

Oh. “Nnoitra, I only want to give you what you want and need, nothing more and nothing less. If you want me to be your heat partner, then I will be. But—”

“Shut up. Shut up, oh my God.” Nnoitra drags his hands down his face and exhales angrily into them. “I don’t want you to be my heat partner, Tesla, I want you to be my  _ alpha. _ I know, I  _ know, _ I’m a fucking asshole. I don’t deserve it. I treated you like garbage because I was trying to scare you away. It’s bad of me to even ask after I got you in trouble and then scared you like this, but… But it’s the truth, and I can at least say that much.”

Tesla inhales slowly, exhales slowly. Rests his hands on Nnoitra’s shoulders, then no, his face, because Nnoitra’s skin is warm and flushed and he looks so suddenly unsure of himself, sounds unlike Tesla has ever heard him. And Tesla… He can’t have that. Not with Nnoitra. Not from someone so strong and individual.

Nnoitra is one of a kind. He told Tesla that on day one. And Tesla does not want to be the reason that Nnoitra suddenly loses a piece of himself.

“Of course I want that,” he says, and Nnoitra looks at him, really looks at him. “I want you to be my omega, my partner, my mate. I was courting you for that purpose. Just as you are, just as you’ll always be. I just want you, Nnoitra.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Nnoitra squirms a little and then tilts his head, nuzzling into Tesla’s palm so gently, so carefully. “You’re special so you better not forget that.”

“Never.” And then Tesla tilts his head and kisses him.

Nnoitra’s lips are slim and his teeth are sharp and his tongue is all over the place but Tesla kisses him just the same, holding his face like he’s precious to him because he is. Nnoitra’s long fingers curl around his wrists as if demanding he stay right here and they just sit there and kiss until Szayel storms into the room, an expression of outrage on his face.

“Out, out, out!” He makes shooing motions at them and Tesla sees the high flush on his cheekbones. “You’re putting out so many pheromones it’s killing me. Get out!”

Nnoitra grins at Tesla, cheeky and flushed. “Bath, food, sex?”

“Absolutely,” Tesla agrees.

He gets to hold Nnoitra’s hand on the way out, Szayel chasing them straight to the doorway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me cupping my hands around my mouth: i love nnoites
> 
> that explicit sexual content tag about to come in handy in the next chapter


	7. Chapter 7

Nnoitra has never been patient when it comes to what he wants.

Now is both different and the same. He  _ wants _ Tesla. Wants him with whatever chunks of heart are left in his chest that haven’t been twisted by his own cynicism and jaded personality and wants him with the animalistic, primal need burning low and hot in his gut. He mutters to himself, rearranges the pillows Tesla has brought him for the fourth time, and still isn’t quite happy with it. Nesting for two people is difficult, and Nnoitra has never had to do it before today. He rides out his heats all on his own.

Which is  _ not _ something he plans on telling Tesla, though part of him thinks he probably should. Tesla will be gentle either way, so he hardly has to think too hard about it.

Tesla brings Nnoitra his pillows and blanket and they smell like him, that wetland scent that curls low in Nnoitra’s belly especially today. As it turns out, bathing and eating with someone who smells edible is hardly an easy task  _ especially _ when his hormones are all keyed up and all he wants to do is have Tesla fuck him through the floor. He thinks it must not have been easy on Tesla, either, because the flush under his skin never quite abated and his pheromones flared every time Nnoitra got closer to him, every time Nnoitra brushed against him. His heat scent is just affecting Tesla that much.

Thighs pressed together to stifle some of the wet needy throb between his thighs, Nnoitra rearranges his nest, adds Tesla’s pillows and blanket, and finally feels satisfied. Tesla, who has been watching from the dresser, has a soft smile on his face, a considerate expression that makes Nnoitra want to crawl over and suck his dick.

...Not that anything would stop him from doing that, so why not just go for it?

“You might wanna lean against the dresser,” Nnoitra tells him, and he’s across the room on all fours in seconds, shoving Tesla’s hips back against it so hard the wood hits the wall, the mirror rattling in its frame. “I’m gonna suck your dick and you might fall over.”

Tesla’s hands brace on the edge of the dresser and his breathing comes out slow and unsteady. “You sure? I won’t make you do that, Nnoitra.”

“I  _ want _ to do it.” More than he wants to think about. “So shut up and let me do it.”

He sees the corner of Tesla’s mouth twitch and shudders. “Of course. Do as you wish.”

As it turns out, Tesla can be quite agreeable when it comes to sex.

Nnoitra fumbles with his jeans, hands twitching just slightly in excitement as he yanks the zipper down and pops the button loose. Tesla has on loose boxers underneath and Nnoitra can see his cock pressing hard against the thin fabric, can smell the musk of his arousal through the slit in the front. It makes him throb in want and makes his mouth dry when he realizes just how big Tesla is, wondering if Tesla can make that fit inside of him. He thinks about the rough rub of it and his thighs tremble with anticipation.

But good things come to those who wait, so he pulls Tesla’s boxers down and catches his cock when it slides free of the fabric. It’s hard, heavy in his hand, thick and long and Nnoitra whines low in his throat at the sight of it.  _ Fuck, _ yeah. He wants that inside him.

Tesla’s fingers card through his hair and the touch is so tender it makes Nnoitra shudder in response. “Go slow,” he murmurs. “I don’t want you to choke yourself.”

Telling Tesla he would probably like gagging on his dick will probably not get him anywhere, so he just nods, folds his lips over his teeth and leans in to run his head over the velvety head, the smooth glans rolling over his tongue. He tastes good,  _ so _ good and Nnoitra feels just a little dizzy like this, on his knees with his thighs spread so wide, Tesla’s cock in his hand and on his tongue. But Tesla’s fingers continue petting his hair and it feels like praise and his stupid omega instincts are eating that shit up, which only makes it feel better.

“You’re beautiful,” Tesla murmurs, and Nnoitra makes a disbelieving sound of protest up at him, scowling at him through one narrowed eye. “I’m serious. You are so gorgeous, Nnoitra.”

_ Fucking sap, _ he thinks, and tries to ignore the fact that it makes something in his chest thud just a little harder. Nnoitra is not  _ pretty, _ Nnoitra is not  _ beautiful, _ Nnoitra is a fucking monster to be reckoned with. But Tesla strokes his cheek and maybe, okay, just once, just this one time, Nnoitra will let Tesla get away with saying such ridiculous things to him. It’s probably just because Nnoitra is sucking his cock, anyway.

He pulls the head into his mouth, pressing his lips against Tesla’s shaft as he works his way toward the base. Going slow, just centimeters at a time, always careful to use as much of his tongue as he can and none of his teeth. Tesla’s pre-come is slightly sweet and he wonders but doesn’t ask, a hand twitching between his thighs to rub where the seam of his pants are chafing so badly. Ridiculously turned on, swollen and sensitive, his heat making everything so much worse. That he has an alpha in the room is what’s doing it.

“Are you touching yourself?” Tesla asks, and Nnoitra looks up at him because yeah, of course he is, it isn’t like Tesla can  _ reach _ — “Under the pants or it’s not going to feel better, it’s only going to feel worse.”

Oh.  _ Oh. _ Nnoitra shoves his hand into his pants and makes a thankful noise against Tesla’s cock, his eye slipping shut as he presses his fingers against the wet part of his slit. The pants are almost soaked through and his underwear is a loss but he focuses only on the sensation, fingers curling inward, rubbing over his clit as his nose presses against Tesla’s pubic hair. It’s trimmed, too, he realizes belatedly.

“You must be so wet.” Tesla’s fingers slip under his chin and Nnoitra makes a noise at him, rolling his hips down against his own fingers. “Your body’s getting ready for me.”

_ Shit. Fuck. _ Nnoitra goes a bit breathless at that, slowly beginning to bob his head on Tesla’s cock just to shut him up for a minute. It works because he gasps, hips stuttering as Nnoitra swallows around his shaft. It makes his mouth feel that much tighter and Tesla appreciates it based on the noises he makes, the way he bucks his hips forward just a little. Not enough to choke or gag Nnoitra, just enough to feel it.

He wonders if Tesla would take him by the hair and fuck his throat. Probably not after almost dying on him, but maybe later. Tesla will want to be  _ romantic _ first.

Nnoitra hates that it makes him feel a little excited, anticipation bubbling in his gut at the fact that  _ any _ alpha would think he’s worth that kind of care and consideration. Or maybe it’s because he wants that from Tesla, and specifically only Tesla.

He makes wet, sloppy noises as he sucks Tesla’s cock, laps up the pre-come eagerly and nudges his tongue against the slit there for more. Tesla keeps petting his hair and whispering little things to him, and Nnoitra’s fingers speed up in time with Tesla’s praise. It’s embarrassing just how close it gets him, how it’s like an aphrodisiac he didn’t know he wanted. And God, Tesla’s cock is so big. It makes his throat feel stretched out.

Tesla warns him when he’s about to come and Nnoitra takes him all the way in so he can swallow easily, throat working quickly so he doesn’t choke. The way Tesla moans for him makes his cunt throb and he shivers with it. He ends up with a few drops of semen smeared on the corner of his mouth but when he tries to wipe it away, Tesla catches him by the wrist, pulls his cock free from Nnoitra’s mouth and sinks to his knees.

“Let me,” he whispers, and drags his tongue over Nnoitra’s lips.

All Nnoitra can do is kneel there while Tesla kisses him, tongue stroking over his own and he groans when he realizes Tesla is licking the taste of his own come out of Nnoitra’s mouth. His hand moves fervently between his thighs but it’s not enough, it’s not  _ enough _ when there’s a hot, handsome alpha in front of him, dying to touch him.

“Are you close?” Tesla asks, his eyes drifting down. “I can smell you. You’re so sweet.”

A stupid sound catches in Nnoitra’s throat and he has to struggle for real words. “Cl-close,” he rasps out. “I’m so fucking close, Tesla, I—”

He doesn’t have to ask; Tesla’s hand joins his own between his thighs, thicker fingers sliding over his clit, pushing his own out of the way. Nnoitra keens and throws his head back, arching into Tesla’s fingers, rubbing and rutting himself against them like he’s going to die if he doesn’t come from this. Tesla knows how to touch him, too, rubs in harsh little circles that makes Nnoitra’s thighs shake and his stomach burn.

“So pretty,” Tesla murmurs, and his voice sounds… Hoarse, and when Nnoitra looks at him he realizes the pretty brown of Tesla’s eye has been swallowed up by blackness, hunger etched into every line of his face. “You’re going to come from my fingers.”

“Yeah.” Nnoitra wets his lips, panting harshly, eye squeezing shut as Tesla’s fingers stroke harder over his clit, smoothing his own wetness over it. “Fuck I’m… I’m so—”

“Come for me.” Tesla’s voice is soft and low and right up against his ear.

The orgasm is sudden and overflowing and Nnoitra’s body jerks with it, his breath coming out in stuttered little gasps while Tesla’s fingers continue touching him, pushing him higher and higher until he feels like he might break from it. And then Tesla is kissing him again, soft and sweet, more praise he thinks dully, and Nnoitra leans into it, accepts it,  _ revels _ in it and swears to himself it must be his heat, his brain too foggy with need.

And he knows how untrue that is, especially when it comes to Tesla.

Slowly, Tesla brings his fingers up to his lips, sucking Nnoitra’s slick off of them and smiling innocently when Nnoitra whimpers at him. But it’s  _ hot _ and hotter still when Tesla catches him by the wrist, licks the wet trail off of his wrist and over his palm, sucking his fingers, too, running his tongue between them until they spread into a V. Nnoitra very much wants that tongue somewhere else now.

“I fucking.” He takes a breath, trying to stabilize himself. “I want you to fuck me.”

Tesla’s smile is gentle. “And I will, but not right away. Let me undress you.”

How is Nnoitra supposed to argue with that? “Don’t hold your breath, Tesla.”

“I’ve no need. You leave me breathless every time.” And before Nnoitra can argue, Tesla kisses him again, hands moving to pull his shirt up over his head.

There is a scar on his chest and his back, that much he knows, but Tesla’s face goes soft and solemn as he looks at the one he can see, fingers brushing over it gently before he leans in to press a kiss to it. Nnoitra knows there is a matching one on Tesla’s calf now and feels stupid when he thinks  _ we match. _ When Tesla’s tongue runs over one of his nipples, lips sucking it hard, Nnoitra stops being able to think about anything at all.

Except  _ hands _ and  _ mouth _ and  _ Tesla, more. _

It takes some effort to get him out of his pants and underwear given that he doesn’t really want to move, a little drowsy from orgasm if he’s being completely honest, but Tesla gets them off of him and then runs very possessive, rough but warm hands over Nnoitra’s bare ass. It startles a noise out of him, the way Tesla grasps and squeezes, fingers digging into his flesh while he mouths a kiss against Nnoitra’s throat, dangerously close to his scent gland. Possessive enough to make Nnoitra annoyed until Tesla licks over his scent gland and nuzzles into it, and then he doesn’t fucking care.

He was the one who told Tesla that he wanted Tesla to be his alpha. And he does, damn him, he wants to have Tesla’s teeth permanently imprinted on his throat.

“You’re so perfect,” Tesla insists, and Nnoitra scoffs. “You fit right against me so well.”

That makes Nnoitra dizzy; his hands move, shoving Tesla’s shirt off of his shoulders so he can run his hands over the strong, bare planes of Tesla’s back. Maybe they do fit together. Maybe Nnoitra should get his head out of his ass and let Tesla say sappy, romantic things to him because maybe he  _ isn’t _ perfect, but Tesla likes him like this. Maybe he isn’t perfect but he’s what Tesla needs and wants, and that’s way more important to him.

Because Tesla is  _ definitely _ what he needs and wants. Just the way he is right now.

“Let me see.” Tesla slides a hand over Nnoitra’s ass and then forward, fingers just brushing over his cunt from this angle, smearing wetness over his perineum. “You’re so wet, Nnoitra. Did that orgasm do enough for you, or do you need more?”

_ The fucker. _ “More,” Nnoitra rasps, rocking back against Tesla’s fingers, imagining how they’d feel inside of him, thick enough to really spear him open. “ _ Alpha, _ I want more.”

He  _ whines _ it and Tesla flushes all the way down his throat, his pupil dilating impossibly wider. “You talk to me like that and I’ll give you anything you want.”

“I’ll remember that.” Nnoitra shifts so that he can rut himself against Tesla’s thigh, groaning at how good he feels, the warmth of him grinding against Nnoitra’s cunt. “I just want you to knot me so fucking bad. I need it.”

Tesla nips at the side of his throat and his eyelid grows heavy imagining Tesla’s teeth in his neck, leaving a permanent mark on him. “I wanna lie you down and eat you out first. Get your scent all over me, make you almost pass out from how good it is. Do you want that? I’ll make you feel so good, Nnoitra, until that’s all you can feel.”

Where did Tesla learn to talk this pretty? Nnoitra has no idea, but it is doing  _ amazing _ things for his rampant libido. “Get your tongue in me before I climb on top of your face.”

“I’ll let you do that for round two.” Tesla’s hands slide under his thighs and then he stands with Nnoitra in his arms like Nnoitra weighs  _ nothing _ and a wheezing breath leaves his lungs because fuck,  _ fuck. _ He wonders if Tesla can fuck him like this, can just manhandle him that much. “But I want to lie you out and devour you right now until you’re limp with pleasure.”

He lies Nnoitra down as tenderly as possible from the way it feels, his hands spreading Nnoitra’s thighs wide as he leans down to lick a hot, wet stripe along his slit. Nnoitra moans, head falling back as he arches his hips up toward Tesla’s hot mouth, the wet rub of his tongue spreading Nnoitra’s folds wide. When he laps up over Nnoitra’s clit, Nnoitra wraps his thighs around Tesla’s head, knots his hands in his hair and lets go. Moans loud and long as Tesla sucks his clit, tonguing it until Nnoitra almost screams.

“You’re so sweet, Nnoitra.” Tesla’s voice is thick and throaty and when Nnoitra looks down at him, Tesla is staring up at him with rapt attention. “I could stay here for hours.”

“Maybe another time.” Nnoitra’s voice wavers just a bit, but it makes Tesla grin.

He tilts his head, runs his tongue along the crease in Nnoitra’s thigh where it hits his mound and a pitiful noise chokes out of him. “You sure I can’t tempt you?”

His brain is screaming  _ just let him _ while his cunt is screaming  _ I want his fucking knot _ and it’s making it hard for Nnoitra to think straight, especially when Tesla sucks a hickey into the inside of his thigh, scraping over it with his teeth.

“Gotta.” Nnoitra shifts and Tesla presses a wet, sloppy kiss over his slit that makes his eye roll back in his head. “Fuck you. Fuck you so much.”

Tesla laughs in answer, spreads Nnoitra open with his fingers and licks all the way up and over him, tongue rasping over Nnoitra’s entrance without dipping inside. “That’s what I’m trying to do to you right now. You taste so  _ good. _ ”

“Thanks?” Nnoitra yelps when Tesla teases his clit with his tongue once more, flicking against it so that each small motion makes Nnoitra jerk in answer. “Alpha,  _ please. _ ”

A growl ripples across his folds in answer and he whines in answer, then chokes when Tesla’s tongue thrusts inside of him. It’s so wet and hot and good, curling inside of him, opening him up easier than Nnoitra thought possible. But he  _ wants _ it, his body and his brain in perfect agreement for a change. Tesla’s eye is heavily lidded as he looks up at Nnoitra with so much clear  _ want _ and  _ mine _ in that gaze that Nnoitra feels light-headed looking at him, his thighs twitching that much wider apart. Offering himself freely.

Tesla fucks Nnoitra leisurely with his tongue, slow thrusts that leave Nnoitra limp on the futon. When he licks back up over Nnoitra’s clit, he doesn’t think anything of it and then whines high and tight in his throat when Tesla presses two fingers against the edge of his opening, testing the tightness of the muscle there.

“Wait, wait.” Nnoitra exhales heavily through his nose. “Tesla, just. Just one. I’m not… I haven’t fucking done this before and two’s probably too many to start.”

He sees disbelief play across Tesla’s face for a moment before it softens into something sweet and  _ loving _ and Nnoitra’s stomach twists up into a knot. “I’ll be careful,” he murmurs, and mouths over Nnoitra’s clit again. “So careful. Gonna make you feel so good, Nnoitra.”

The one finger that slips inside of him is already quite a bit but his body wants it and  _ he _ wants it, and Tesla keeps lapping over his clit to distract him from the initial stretch. He hardly notices the second finger at all, wrapped up in the heat consuming his body, the pleasure slowly washing over him in little bursts. Then Tesla presses his fingers up and Nnoitra groans, fucks himself down on Tesla’s fingers until Tesla gets the hint and starts pressing up against that spot, rubbing in tight little circles.

“So good for me.” Another hard press up, and Nnoitra moans. “So wet for me. So sweet and tight.” A hard lick over his clit, tongue teasing around the edge of his entrance. “I’m going to fuck you so deep and knot you so good until you’re exhausted.”

Nnoitra’s body is tuned to every touch of Tesla’s fingers, every stroke of his tongue and every little growl of desire that vibrates across his own skin. The orgasm builds slow and hard in his gut and he throws his head back hard against the pillows when he comes, gasping and moaning and grinding himself against Tesla’s face. And Tesla  _ lets _ him, rests his head on Nnoitra’s stomach when he’s done, slowly pulling his fingers out of him.

And Nnoitra  _ hates _ how keenly his body feels that loss. “No, no, no. You gotta. Tesla.”

“I know.” Tesla kisses his stomach, dips his tongue in Nnoitra’s navel and the bastard, it tickles. “Just breathe for a minute. How do you want to do it?”

“Hands and knees. H-hold me down.” The thought makes him burn hotter, the weight of Tesla on top of him, chest against his back. “I want you on top of me, alpha, please.”

“Fuck, yes.” Tesla is up on his knees and Nnoitra snickers at the fact he’s hard again, how his body is responding more to Nnoitra’s needs than his own right now. “Roll over for me. I want to see you on your knees for me, omega.”

Nnoitra, admittedly, needs a little help; two orgasms has drained plenty of his energy. Tesla helps him roll over and get up on his knees, and Nnoitra maybe whimpers just a little when Tesla licks over him a handful of times more before he feels the hot press of Tesla’s cock against his folds, rubbing up against him before sliding against his entrance. It’s a tight fit but Nnoitra breathes slow and easy, eyes sliding shut as he holds as still as he can to let Tesla take it nice and slow. He’s  _ thick, _ pressing against everything sensitive inside of Nnoitra until his thighs are trembling from the pressure inside of him.

“You feel so good around me, Nnoitra.” Tesla pulls out slowly and pushes back in, and Nnoitra groans loudly, pressing his face down into the pillows in response. It smells so safe here, where he’s surrounded by his nest and Tesla’s scent, with Tesla’s hands palming his hips. “You’re so beautiful. My brave, fierce omega.”

Nnoitra shoves his hair back out of his own face so he can look up at Tesla up the length of his own back and then shivers when Tesla leans over him, bracketing Nnoitra with his arms, tongue dragging along his spine. “My stupid fucking alpha.”

“All yours.” Tesla presses tight against him and Nnoitra arches his spine just a little to lessen the distance. Even with his long as hell legs, his torso is still pretty long, and the arch is enough so that Tesla can nip at his throat. “Nnoitra, what—”

“Fucking mark me.” Nnoitra grinds his hips back against Tesla’s, almost breathless at how big he feels, how swollen and heavy. “I said I wanted to be yours. I  _ said _ I wanted it. Fuck me and knot me and mark me.  _ Make _ me your omega for real.”

Tesla growls softly against his skin, drags his teeth along Nnoitra’s throat. “Yes, Nnoitra.”

He pins Nnoitra down and fucks him hard and fast; Nnoitra wails and ruts back against him, his cunt already swollen and sensitive from so many orgasms, his body hot under Tesla’s own. It feels better than anything ever has before, better than his own fingers or any toys he’s ever used to fill himself out. Tesla is hot and heavy on top of him, hips slapping against Nnoitra’s ass, his cock spearing Nnoitra open with every thrust. When he throws his head back against Tesla’s shoulder, Tesla’s teeth drag across his neck again, scraping his skin so hard it makes him shiver and cry out in wild need.

“Knot me, knot me, knot me you fucking—” Nnoitra breaks off and nearly screams when one hard thrust rocks his entire body. “Fuck, Tesla, fuck fuck  _ fuck. _ ”

“Yes.” Tesla’s chest grows heavier on his back and Nnoitra moans, his cunt clamping down tight around Tesla’s cock. “Come for me one more time, Nnoitra. You can do it.”

He can, as it turns out. And the second he does, Tesla bites down on his neck so hard he screams, fingers knotting in the bedding as Tesla pins him down and sinks his teeth in deep until Nnoitra feels the skin break under his teeth. He shrieks and Tesla holds him down, and he can feel the moment Tesla’s knot swells inside of him, stretching him impossibly wider. Tesla moans against Nnoitra’s skin, pulling back just enough to lap over the wound on Nnoitra’s throat, cleaning away the blood and easing the pain there.

“Fuck,” Nnoitra whispers, head falling forward on his forearms, hair spilling everywhere.

Tesla laughs softly against his skin, nuzzling and licking the bite mark. An alpha’s bite has the ability to numb the pain of a mating mark, helping it heal better so that it scars quickly and with less pain. And Nnoitra can only wheeze softy and lie there, Tesla’s cock heavy and hard inside of him, pressed right up against the edge of his body.

Slowly, Tesla lies down, taking Nnoitra with him until they’re on their sides. He presses his back against Tesla’s chest, reveling in how warm he feels, how satisfied. That deep itch in his gut has been briefly satisfied and he loves how it feels, how he feels with Tesla still inside of him, wrapped around him, nuzzling his throat and whispering soft praise in his ear. When he nibbles the edge of Nnoitra’s jaw, Nnoitra finally lifts a hand, lazily swatting at him, which only succeeds in getting Tesla to kiss his palm.

“How do you feel, Nnoitra?” he asks, wrapping his arms tight around him.

“Sleepy. Good. Warm.” Nnoitra curls himself up as small as he can, looking back over his shoulder at Tesla. “You took good care of me, y’know. Guess there’s three good alphas.”

Tesla chuckles, licks up the side of his nose. “Good. If I’m going to be your alpha, I have to be good at what I do, right? Gotta take care of my pretty omega.”

“You’re going to keep saying that shit until I bite your head off for it.” Nnoitra flops against the futon, boneless, and ignores the curls of warmth in his gut at how good he feels when Tesla says that stupid nonsense to him. “Whatever, I guess.”

“No regrets?” Tesla strokes his thigh, up his side to rest his hand over where Nnoitra’s heart is beating firmly. “You happy with this choice?”

Nnoitra nods, pressing his hand on top of Tesla’s. “No regrets. I’m good. But you better be as good to me as you’ve been so far. No slacking off on the job now that I’m your mate.”

“All that means is I have to work twice as hard now. Gotta prove that I’m worth the effort.” Tesla kisses over the bite mark and Nnoitra shivers. “Sleep, Nnoitra. I’ll hold you.”

The last thing he wants to do is sleep after how much he slept over the last few days, but warm and content in Tesla’s arms, he feels  _ safe _ in a way he never has before. He falls asleep with Tesla breathing soft and warm over the fresh mark on his neck.

No regrets. He’d let Tesla kill that hunter for him all over again.

They crawl out of Nnoitra’s den four days later, days where Tesla has only left the room to bring food back for both of them. The rest of the pack is lounging around the fire, enjoying a quiet morning in from the looks of it; even Aizen is lounging, drowsy and sweet, with his back cradled against Gin’s back and Gin’s arms curled around him. Nelliel is the one who notices them first, sparing them a glance and then sitting up properly, Grimmjow whining and pawing at her until he realizes what she’s looking at, raising an eyebrow as well.

“Welcome back, Nnoitra, Tesla.” Aizen raises a hand to them but hardly moves from his place, though his eyes do open fully a moment later. “My, my, Nnoitra. Your neck.”

“You have a mating mark on your throat,” Nelliel says, and the rest of the pack looks up.

Nnoitra lowers himself into an empty spot between Ulquiorra and Szayel. Ulquiorra lifts his head from Yammy’s chest after a moment, looking at Nnoitra with slitted green eyes, before he goes back to napping while Szayel only rolls his eyes dramatically and curls into a tighter ball of pillows and blankets. He looks cozy; he must be.

“So?” Nnoitra smiles to himself when Tesla sits down next to him, and Nnoitra sprawls across his lap, nuzzling into his thigh. “Was about time I settled down, then, right?”

Nelliel studies him for a moment before letting Grimmjow pull her back down. “I suppose.”

“Congratulations, Nnoitra,” Gin purrs, and Nnoitra just looks at him. “It was about time.”

Nnoitra could make a comment about how Aizen’s throat is clear of scars but chooses not to, content in the warmth of the fire especially when Tesla’s fingers start carding through his hair again. He mewls at the attention, luxuriating in it, in the way Tesla smiles warmly down at him, his one visible eye warm and soft with all kinds of affection.

“The hunters won’t let us stay here in peace forever after that attack,” Yammy muses, stroking one massive hand down Ulquiorra’s small and slender back; Ulquiorra makes a small content noise. “But I guarantee we can kick their asses if it comes right down to it.”

Tesla makes an affirmative noise before Nnoitra can speak. “I owe them a life-threatening injury in return for the one they dealt my mate. It would bring me enjoyment to do that.”

Nnoitra chuckles and nips at his thigh, and Tesla’s fingers rub up over his scalp, the pads of his fingers massaging Nnoitra’s scalp well enough to make his eyes flutter shut.

They can handle the hunters if they have to, deal them another few injuries to compensate for the injuries their pack was dealt. With Tesla to watch his back, Nnoitra can charge forth without any hesitation. Besides, he’s got a few wounds to pay them back for himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they're happy together and in love and mated! yay! nnoites is good.
> 
> also i dropped my yammyulqui agenda this time. i can't stop.

**Author's Note:**

> this is going to have a few chapters. it's not gonna be majorly long like everything else i'm currently writing but it's going to have a few parts to it. i'm nnoites garbage as it turns out and i really love writing about them. also their story is a little bit more complicated because nnoitra is nnoitra and tesla is so in love with him.
> 
> some interesting backstory stuff with aizen's pack is in this compared to what byakuya's pack knows in simply.
> 
> oh also this is going to end with straight-up porn.


End file.
